New owners, opportunities for compounder Pomini

The plastics and rubber compounding equipment division of Techint, marketed under the Pomini brand, has found a new owner who Riccardo Curti, senior VP, says will allow the division to better develop and grow. Techint, an Argentinean-Italian conglomerate, will now concentrate on its core steel-mill equipment business after selling Pomini, its Castellanza, Italy-based rubber and plastics machinery division, to the L. Possehl Group (Lübeck, Germany). In 2005, Possehl acquired Harburg-Freudenberger (HF), a manufacturer of rubber/elastomer processing equipment that was formerly a part of Werner & Pfleiderer (Stuttgart, Germany) and before that Krupp (Essen, Germany).

Curti says the new company, named Pomini Plastics and Rubber SpA, has a long-term agreement to sublet production space in the present Techint plant for its own assembly work. HF will continue to operate separately under its own name. Curti admitted there is some overlap in product between Pomini and HF in rubber processing.

“This acquisition allows a number of synergies for Pomini including optimization of production, bulk purchasing as a larger group, as well as a more extensive after sales/service network around the world,” he says. Pomini sees itself as the technology leader in continuous mixers for the new group.—[email protected]