Sudpack Verpackungen buys US converter Seville Flexpack

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sudpack Verpackungen GmbH of Germany is acquiring Seville Flexpack Corp., a move that provides the flexible packaging maker its first manufacturing operations in the United States, said Plasticsnewseurope.

Seville, of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, put itself up for sale earlier this year following years of infighting between the heirs of Seville’s founder, Walter J. Yakich, following his death in June 2014.

"We’d been looking for a suitable candidate for our U.S. business for quite some time," said Johannes Remmele, managing partner at Sudpack, in a statement. "The site is ideal in a number of ways: the facilities offer modern equipment for flexographic and rotogravure printing, sufficient storage capacity, and most importantly: highly experienced workers."

Sudpack is based in Ochsenhausen, Germany, and previously only had a sales office in the United States in the Chicago area, the company said. The company also has 35 sales offices and production facilities in Germany, France, Poland and Switzerland. TKO Miller LLC, a Milwaukee-based investment bank, advised Seville on the sale.

"We saw a lot of parties interested in Seville, but Sudpack was a buyer that had a very good understanding of Seville’s business model, its manufacturing processes, and customer based as well as a desire to grow the business in Wisconsin," said Joe Froehlich, managing director of TKO Miller, in a statement.

Seville became part of Sudpack on Oct 1, and terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company has two manufacturing sites near its Oak Creek headquarters.

Sudpack’s Remmele pointed to Seville’s location "in the heart of the U.S. meat and cheese industry — to key customer segments for our packaging solutions. Taken together, it is the perfect fit for or corporate group."

Sudpack, using Seville’s facility, "expects to provide products to its U.S.-based customers more quickly and with more flexibility," the company said in a statement. Sudpack declined comment beyond a statement announcing the purchase.

"This is Sudpack’s first acquisition in the United States, and the company believes that it will set the groundwork for further expanding its U.S. presence," the company said in the statement.

The sale comes about eight months after children of Yakich agreed to sell the converter and hired TKO Miller to handle the transaction.

At the time, interim CEO Laxson Boyd said the goal was to find a strategic buyer, one that was already in the industry, to help maximize the value of the firm. At the time, he pointed to the company’s loyal customer base, employees and unused capacity as attractions for potential buyers.
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Lawsuit against Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion starts in Canada

MOSCOW (MRC) — A Canadian judicial review that could overturn the federal approval of Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion will begin on Monday in Vancouver, said Reuters.

More than a dozen parties, including the company, government departments, environmental and aboriginal groups, will present their cases over two weeks before Canada's Federal Court of Appeal.

A decision against the USD5.9 B expansion would send it back for assessment, a move that would cause lengthy delays. It is rare for Canada's judiciary to review pipeline approvals. The last such review, heard in 2015, led to the rejection of Enbridge Inc's Northern Gateway pipeline by the federal government.

While the court has no firm deadline for rendering a judgment, it announced its decision against Northern Gateway in June 2016, about eight months after hearings ended. The Trans Mountain expansion would nearly triple the capacity of the existing pipeline from Canada's oil heartland of Alberta to the west coast of British Columbia. The two provinces joined the lawsuit this year on opposing sides.

The lawsuit, brought by environmental and aboriginal groups and coastal municipalities, argues that the National Energy Board (NEB) regulator did not properly review the project, neglecting to consider several environmental issues. It also claims the federal government did not properly consult affected aboriginal groups when it assessed the project.

On the other side of the lawsuit are Kinder Morgan, the federal government and the NEB. Kinder Morgan and the government did not respond to requests for comment. The regulator declined to comment. The government has called the export of its natural resources a "fundamental" responsibility, and that it has considered many factors in approving the project, including environmental concerns and views of affected aboriginal people.

Kinder Morgan has said it went through extensive consultations with aboriginal groups and communities along the expansion's path and remains dedicated to engaging them.

Canadian crude oil producers, who are not parties to the lawsuit, say they need projects such as the Trans Mountain expansion to fetch better prices for their landlocked product.

Eugene Kung, a lawyer representing the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, a party to the lawsuit, said the results of the Enbridge case suggest Trans Mountain opponents could win the case. Regardless of its outcome, it is likely be appealed to Canada's Supreme Court, Kung said.
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ExxonMobil Continues to Increase Acreage Position in Permian Basin

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil Corporation announced it has added 22,000 acres to its Permian Basin portfolio since May through a series of acquisitions and acreage trades, said ExxonMobil.

Located in the highly prolific, stacked oil pay zones of the Delaware and Midland Basins, the new acreage adds to the company’s existing 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent Permian Basin resource base.

The recent transactions represent important additions to ExxonMobil’s established core positions in the Delaware and Midland Basins. In February, ExxonMobil acquired 250,000 acres in the Delaware Basin from companies owned by the Bass family of Fort Worth. In the Midland Basin, the company has doubled its core operated acreage to more than 130,000 acres through multiple transactions over the last few years.

"We continue to build on our strong position in the Permian," said Jack Williams, ExxonMobil senior vice president. "Our leading presence in the Permian, from equity production through to Gulf Coast refining capacity, positions us well for the future."

ExxonMobil is one of the most active operators in the Permian Basin, currently operating 19 drilling rigs, 14 of which are drilling horizontal wells in the core Midland Basin, where the company has added 200 wells since mid-2014. The company also has four rigs drilling horizontal wells in the Delaware Basin of New Mexico, where the company recently drilled its first 12,500-foot horizontal lateral length well.

ExxonMobil, the largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, uses technology and innovation to help meet the world’s growing energy needs. ExxonMobil holds an industry-leading inventory of resources, is the largest refiner and marketer of petroleum products, and its chemical company is one of the largest in the world.
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Engel opens physical foam moulding competence centre in Germany

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Engel’s German subsidiary, Engel Deutschland Technologieforum has opened a MuCell Competence Centre in Stuttgart to advance the company’s structural foam moulding technology, said Plasticsnewseurope.

The Austrian injection moulding machinery supplier said the centre was set up in response to growing lightweight trends, stating that structural foam moulding – MuCell – was one of the most important technologies available.

The microcellular foam injection moulding process for thermoplastics materials provides unique design flexibility and saves costs. The process allows for plastic part design with material wall thickness optimised for functionality and not for the injection moulding process.

Therefore, the combination of density reduction and design for functionality often results in material and weight savings of more than 20%. "As a competence centre, we are even better able to support our customers to more fully exploit the potential offered by the physical foaming process," explained Claus Wilde, managing director at Engel Deutschland in Stuttgart.

"We already have a number of major customers here in southwestern Germany who use the MuCell process in their factories worldwide," he noted.

As part of the project, a large manufacturing cell has been installed at the ENGEL technology centre in Stuttgart for customer trials, development work, application-specific consulting, training and small-lot production. Equipped with an Engel duo 350 injection moulding machine with a clamping force of 3500 kN, an integrated ENGEL easix multi-axis robot and a T-200 MuCell unit from the company’s technology partner Trexel, the cell covers a broad spectrum of applications.

Over the past months, Engel’s Lukas Neunzig has completed a number of MuCell projects with global customers at Engel’s headquarters in Schwertberg and at the large-scale machine plant in St. Valentin.

According to Engel, which held a MuCell technology event in mid-September, the process is not just for car manufacturers. "We are receiving a growing number of inquiries from other industries as well, such as technical injection moulding and medical technology," says Wilde.

Two main drivers of success, said Engel, are first the general lightweight trend and, second, the high quality of the components produced in the structural foam moulding process. Physical foaming involves the injection and homogeneous distribution of a blowing agent into the plastic melt during plastification.

After injection into the mould, the gas separates from the melt and creates a fine-cell foam structure. In this way, significantly less material is needed to fill the cavities compared to standard injection moulding and the component weight decreases.

MuCell is a brand owned by the company Trexel, located in Wilmington, Massachusetts. As a system supplier, ENGEL imports the MuCell systems for its customers and manages the integration of the controls and safety aspects into the injection moulding machine.
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INEOS to build a new world-class off-roader reaches new milestone with website launch

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS Automotive has announced Projekt Grenadier's senior management team, updated the search for the site, and outlined the engine options currently under consideration, said the company on its website.

INEOS Automotive has also launched the Projekt Grenadier website, revealing exciting new details about the 'go-anywhere' off-roader. The launch of this interactive website marks the first milestone in the 600 million project to build the world's best and most uncompromising 4x4.

"Projekt Grenadier is starting to capture the public's imagination and this new website is the next milestone on the road", says Jim Ratcliffe, INEOS Chairman. "Our decision to build a brand new world- class 4x4 is an adventure story and we want everyone to share it." Projekt Grenadier – the name given by INEOS to its plan to build a world-class uncompromising 4 x 4 off-roader – reaches a new milestone today with the launch of an interactive website and social media channels.

The website profiles the go-anywhere off-roader’s new management team, as well as featuring a series of videos revealing the genesis of the project, initial thoughts on the vehicle design and the current search for a suitable manufacturing site. This and the new social feeds will provide a window on the project for the general public, sharing regular updates throughout the vehicle’s development – and will even invite followers to participate in the process by sharing their views and designs.

The website launch took place at The Grenadier pub in London’s Belgravia. It was here that Jim Ratcliffe, the chairman of INEOS, first came up with the idea of building a world-class uncompromising 4x4 off-roader to replace the discontinued Land Rover Defender.

INEOS has committed to spending ?600 million on the vehicle and expects to create up to 7,000 direct and indirect jobs. A range of models are planned for sale across the world including multiple wheel-base options, as well as diesel, petrol and hybrid engines to suit different markets.

Dirk Heilmann, the CEO of INEOS Automotive and leader of Projekt Grenadier, says, "Our job is to create the world’s best and most uncompromising 4x4, and we are steadily moving forward with the project. We have recruited a first-class management team, are making good progress in our search for a manufacturing site, and we are now launching the new Projekt Grenadier interactive website."

INEOS Automotive’s new off-roader will have the spirit and straightforward engineering of the old 4x4s but with a massive leap forward in reliability. It will appeal to explorers, farmers and off-road enthusiasts as well as city dwellers seeking adventure.

"The building of our new 4x4 is an adventure story in itself,” says Jim Ratcliffe, INEOS Chairman. “We are used to taking on big, innovative projects and delivering them safely on time and on budget. We have vast amounts of manufacturing and engineering expertise, and a proven track record of success, and we look forward to applying this to create a world-class 4x4."

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