Teknor Apex acquires Viking Polymers in a move to substantially expand its rigid PVC compounding business

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Teknor Apex Company has completed the acquisition of Viking Polymers, LLC, a custom compounder with a diversified portfolio of specialty formulations and a particularly extensive involvement in rigid PVC and related materials for building and construction, reported the company on its site.

The amount of the deal was undisclosed.

Based in Jamestown, NC, USA, Viking Polymers has a nominal annual compounding capacity of 50 million lbs. (23,000 metric tons). The acquired business will be part of the Teknor Apex Vinyl Division, continue to operate in Jamestown, NC, and retain all employees, according to Louis R. Cappucci, Teknor Apex vice president and head of the Vinyl Division.

"While most of the business of the Vinyl Division of Teknor Apex has historically centered on flexible compounds, rigid PVC plays an increasingly important role in our continued growth," said Mr. Cappucci. "The acquisition of Viking Polymers adds substantially to our rigid PVC capabilities and represents a natural extension of our product portfolio into weatherable capstocks, CPVC compounds, and other specialties for the fast-growing building and construction market."

The chief applications for CPVC (chlorinated polyvinyl chloride) include hot and cold potable water systems and industrial piping. PVC, ASA, acrylic and alloys are custom formulated for applications ranging from house siding, windows, decks, railings, rainwater systems, and fences.

As MRC informed before, in December 2013, Teknor Apex Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., a subsidiary of Teknor Apex Company, completed a global restructuring of TPE brands and since then has combined all compounds for consumer product applications under the well-known Monprene brand. It now embraces a much broader portfolio of TPE technologies that provide a vast array of consumer values.

Teknor Apex is one of the world's leading custom compounders headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA. The company produces PA compounds in the UK, the USA, and Singapore. Teknor Apex is one of the world's leaders of specialty PVC compounds which are used in a wide range of applications from wire and cable to automotive, medical, consumer and industrial products. The company also produces thermoplastic elastomers, nylon, bioplastics, chemicals, specialty compounds.

Founded in 1994, Viking Polymers is a custom compounder specializing in thermoplastic compounds. PVC products offered by Viking Polymers include pelletized and dryblend rigid vinyl, flexible vinyl, and PVC-based blends and alloys.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bayer MaterialScience has inaugurated its new coatings, adhesives and specialities laboratory at the DuBiotech premises, a major life science cluster, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, as per GV.

This application and development lab will offer local technical support to the industry across the Middle East and Africa. Focussing on key application areas like construction, automotive, industrial, plastic, wood and furniture coatings it will also lead to the development of polyurethane coatings for diverse applications including sealants for construction joints as well as airport tarmacs and solvent-free coatings for pipe applications, says Bayer. It is also planned that the laboratory will provide tailor-made solutions to the manufacturers of adhesives and sealants for the transportation, construction, furniture, packaging and shoe industries.

According to the company, the lab will work in close cooperation with Bayer’s global competence network having its established laboratories and technical centres in India, China, Japan, Russia, Brazil, USA, Spain, and Germany. DuBiotech, offering international standard services and facilities, hosts the state-of-the-art laboratory that is equipped with advanced testing and application equipment, meeting global standards and guidelines.

As MRC wrote previously, Bayer MaterialScience has recently acquired DuPont's aniline production facility in Baytown, Texas. Aniline is a primary feedstock used to manufacture methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), a versatile chemical used to produce rigid polyurethane foams for insulation in the construction industry, as well as coatings, adhesives, sealants, elastomers and binders.

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., BMS is part of the global Bayer MaterialScience business with approximately 14,800 employees at 30 production sites around the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Abu Dhabi Polymers Co. (Borouge), a joint venture of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Borealis, is undergoing start-up activities on its USD 4.5-billion third phase expansion in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, as per GV.

Borealis, in announcing its financial results for 2013, said the cracker is scheduled to begin production "at the end of the first quarter of 2014." The 1.5-million t/y cracker will complement Borouge’s existing 600,000-t/y and a 1.5-million-t/y crackers at the Ruwais site.

The third phase expansion project, which had initially been scheduled to come on stream during 2013, will also increase the venture’s polyolefins capacity to 4.5-million t/y from 2-million t/y. The additional capacity includes two Borstar enhanced polyethylene (PE) plants having a combined capacity of 1.08-million t/y, a 350,000-t/y low-density PE plant and two Borstar enhanced polypropylene plants with a total of 960,000 t/y of capacity.

As MRC informed previously, in January 2014, Honeywell was awarded four contracts worth a combined USD40 million over an 18-month duration for the Abu Dhabi Polymer Company’s Borouge 3 petrochemicals complex in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi. Honeywell will be the main automation contractor (MAC) for this project, providing Linde and other engineering, procurement and construction (EPCs) contractors involved in the project with integrated control and safety systems.

Honeywell’s technologies have previously been implemented in the Borouge 1 project in 1999 and the Borouge 2 project in 2010, and will continue to help Borouge meet its goal of expanding capacity of the plant, making it the largest integrated polyolefins site in the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema, a France-based chemical manufacturer, is launching its first range of liquid thermoplastic resins under the brand Elium, which is transformed using the same processes as composite thermosets, said the producer in its press-release.

The exciting new technology won an award in 2013 at JEC and is being used in 2014 because it is lightweight, cost-effective and recyclable. Elium resins polymerize quickly and can be used to design structural parts as well as aesthetic elements in a number of applications anywhere from the automotive and transportation industries to wind power, athletic equipment and the building sector.

Elium is it an easy resin to use for lightweight and resilient composite parts. Composite parts made from Elium are 30-50% lighter than the same parts made from steel, but offer the same resistance. When combined with Arkema Luperox peroxide initiators, Elium can be molded into complex design forms for composite parts and perfectly blends with glass or carbon fibers. As a bonus, it is also compatible with conventional thermosetting resin transformation technologies, which cuts down the costs of transformers.

In addition to the Elium range, Arkema is developing a polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) called Kepstan to replace metal in extreme conditions (offshore, aviation), the Rilsan range, a high-performance powdered or granulated polyamide that is 100% bio-sourced and makes thermoset composites resistant to abrasion and shock at very high or low temperatures.

As MRC wrote before, Arkema officially started its new 60,000 MTY emulsion polymers facility on its Changshu platform. The plant, part of Arkema’s Coating Resins business unit, will serve customers in the Asia Pacific region with a full line of waterborne emulsion polymers for coatings and adhesives applications.

Arkema is a global industrial and speciality chemical company made up of three business segments; Vinyl Products, Industrial Chemicals and Performance Products. It is present in over 40 countries with 14,000 employees and sales of more than EUR6bn.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay has launched the production of torrefied biomass at an industrial scale in the United States, creating a new business that aims to provide an innovative and renewable energy solution, said the producer in its press-release.

This business will be run by the recently created Solvay Biomass Energy joint venture between Solvay and U.S. company New Biomass Energy (NBE).

Torrefied biomass, which handles and burns similarly to coal, is produced through torrefaction, a process that modifies the chemical properties of waste wood and biomass. Torrefied biomass can immediately and practically substitute coal, enabling power plants to generate clean energy.

Today, some power plants in Europe use traditional wood pellets to replace coal. Torrefied biomass, however, contains 35% more energy by weight than wood pellets, which also yields significant logistical benefits to customers. Moreover, Solvay is improving the water repellent properties of torrefied biomass to further enhance its storage and handling properties.

Torrefied biomass is produced in Quitman, Mississippi at a plant that was built and developed by NBE. Solvay will provide its industrial expertise to more than triple annual production capacity to 250,000 tons by the end of 2014 from 80,000 tons currently. Solvay Biomass Energy will use by-products, such as sawmill residues, from the highly developed timber industry in the area’s managed forests.

Solvay Biomass Energy, majority-owned by Solvay’s business unit Solvay Energy Services, is in charge of the plant’s operations and maintenance, feedstock sourcing, logistics and technology as well as of the product’s marketing mainly to energy producers in Europe and Asia.

As MRC wrote before, Chemical firms Solvay and INEOS said they have submitted a revised package of concessions to win European Union clearance for a planned joint venture that would create one of the world's largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics companies.

Solvay S.A. is a Belgian chemical company founded in 1863, with its head office in Neder-Over-Heembeek, Brussels, Belgium. The company has diversified into two major sectors of activity: chemicals and plastics. Solvay supplies over 1500 products across 35 brands of high-performance polymers – fluoropolymers, fluoroelastomers, fluorinated fluids, semi-aromatic polyamides, sulfone polymers, aromatic ultra polymers, high-barrier polymers and cross-linked high-performance compounds.
MRC