Processor brings BOPS to BelarusProcessor brings BOPS to Belarus

One processor in Belarus, formerly a USSR republic, is out to grab market share from the $2 billion worth of packaging materials imported into the region each year from Western Europe.

Alcopack (Koblenz, Germany) is opening a greenfield, 20,125-tonne/yr plant at its subsidiary in Gomel, Belarus, near the Ukrainian border, to make mono- and bioriented polystyrene (MOPS, BOPS) web-a product more familiar in North America and Japan than in Europe.

Craig McAllister, project manager at the e20-million, 8000-sq-m facility, says there are important reasons to go after the BOPS market rather than concentrate on bioriented polypropylene (BOPP) or bioriented polyester (BOPET).

"The plant gives us several key advantages in terms of product offering, range, quality, and volume economics [see chart] that will allow us to mount a strong challenge to existing producers with relatively old plants in Europe," McAllister says. Because the domestic market is still small but growing, the company is aiming at 50% export once its tenter frame line from Brückner Maschinenbau (Siegsdorf, Germany) starts production in January.

Polystyrene is a "forgiving resin to process," McAllister says. Alcopack is counting on an increase in North American and British supermarkets and megastores coming into the region, and bringing along their own requirements for packaging such as thermoformed BOPS bakery and salad containers.

For thermoforming, the company will produce three-layer sheet made from general purpose PS and styrene butadiene styrene (SBS) to get the clarity, high gloss, stiffness, and formability needed in gauges from 100 to 800 µm. MOPS and BOPS film in thicknesses between 25 and 100 µm targets applications in shrink sleeves, twist wrap, synthetic paper, and envelope windows.

Robert Colvin [email protected]

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