Packaging supplier Canyon Plastics acquired by VPET USA

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Graham Partners portfolio company VPET USA LLC of Fontana, Calif., is acquiring Canyon Plastics Inc., a Valencia, Calif.-based packaging moulder, said Canplastics.

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. In a Jan. 25 news release, VPET officials described Canyon as a supplier of consumer-packaged goods such as vitamins, protein powders, supplements, and nutraceuticals, as well as a growing portfolio of specialized engineered products for the medical device and aerospace and defense sectors. It uses blow molding, stretch blow molding, and injection molding. Canyon was founded in 1982 and has an employee base of over 100.

We remind, in 2019, Graham Partners invested in VPET USA LLC, a Fontana, Calif.-based company that blow molds custom and stock PET plastic containers for the food packaging and beverage industries and that specializes in wide-mouth PET food packaging.

Also, in 2018, Graham Partners bought Nuconic Packaging LLC of Vernon, Calif., another maker of thermoformed packaging.

VPET is a provider of plastic containers primarily used to package food and beverage products. Graham bought VPET in 2019. Graham Partners is headquartered in Newtown Square, Pa.

Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Newtown Square, Pa., Graham Partners focuses on acquiring and investing in what it calls “higher growth, middle-market consumer and industrial manufacturing-related companies”.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ascend Performance Materials (Houston, Texas) said it has signed an investment agreement to set up a new hexamethylene diamine (HMD) and specialty chemicals plant in Lianyungang, China, to supply its global polyamide production and serve its regional customers, accordingto Apic-online.

The project, to be located in Xuwei New Area Park, will be the company?s first chemical production facility and its largest investment made outside the US Construction is expected to begin later this year with start-up targeted for the second half of 2023.

The capacity of the new plant was not disclosed.

"Our growth is driven by increasing market demand and growing collaboration with our customers globally," noted Ascend President and Chief Executive Phil McDivitt.

As MRC reported earlier, in January 2021, Ascend Performance Materials acquired Eurostar Engineering Plastics (Fosse, France), a compounder with a broad portfolio of flame-retardant (FR) engineered plastics and expertise in halogen-free formulations.

And in June 2020, Ascend acquired the assets of NCM (Changshu) Co. and Tehe Engineering Plastic (Suzhou) Co. located in Changshu Yushan High-tech Industrial Park near Shanghai. Ascend intends to expand the compounding assets at the site and to establish a global research and development center.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sulzer Chemtech has finalized an agreement with Encina Development Group, LLC to provide technology to recover high purity circular aromatics from cracked oil products derived from Encina’s mixed-plastics-to-aromatics catalytic conversion platform, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Encina’s 1000 tpd waste plastics recycling facility will be located in Northeast US, and is expected to be operational in 2024.

Encina has developed a catalytic platform wherein the cracked products selectively contain high levels of circular aromatics as well as other valuable by-products. Sulzer Chemtech will provide its hydrotreating and aromatics extraction technology (SuRe BTX) to recover high purity circular benzene and toluene.

Sulzer Chemtech’s flagship aromatic extraction technology (GT-BTX) has been deployed worldwide for aromatics recovery from reformate and naphtha cracked pyrolysis with more than 70 licenses sold. This is the first commercial application of this technology where waste plastics is used as feedstock within a circular chemical solution to help resolve a global environmental issue.

Sander van Donk, Head Global Technology Business at Sulzer Chemtech, concludes: “We are pleased to support Encina’s mission of enabling circularity in plastics recycling by providing our SuRe BTX technology downstream of their catalytic conversion process. This novel value chain builds on Sulzer Chemtech’s commitment to circularity and opens up an entirely new market for ultra-pure circular benzene and toluene produced from waste plastics.”

As MRC informed before, India’s national objective of achieving self-sufficiency in energy and reducing its fossil fuel footprint is being supported by Sulzer’s expertise in pump manufacturing and refinery processes. The country’s first bio-refinery, Assam Bio Refinery Pvt Ltd., built by Chempolis' technology, is a ground-breaking JV that will be the only refinery in the world to create bioethanol from bamboo - available in abundance in north-eastern India. To help realize this pioneering endeavor, Sulzer is delivering a range of engineered application pumps as well as core technology such as column internals for the refining process.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,265,290 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2021, up by 14% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,363,850 tonnes in January-November, 2021, up by 25% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF is to fundamentally modernize the entire infrastructure, including the facilities for the production of chloroformates and acid chlorides at its Ludwigshafen Verbund site, said the company.

The company is investing a low three-digit million euro amount for this. The measures, which will be completed in the course of 2025, will increase the company's capacity for these products at the site by around 30 percent. BASF is one of the world's leading manufacturers of chloroformates, acid chlorides and alkyl chlorides, with a current annual capacity of 60,000 metric tons, as well as production facilities at its sites in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Yeosu, Korea.

"With our investment project we prove our long-term commitment to these high-value specialty products," said Frank Stein, head of the Regional Business Unit Europe in BASF's Intermediates division, adding, "As a leading producer in this field, we want to continue to reliably support our customers' growth with a state-of-the-art infrastructure."

BASF sells around 30 individual products from the group of chloroformates, acid chlorides and alkyl chlorides. Customers use the chemicals for further processing in a wide range of applications, ranging from synthesis building blocks for pharmaceuticals and crop protection products to the production of organic peroxides. Peroxides prove their worth in the production of coating materials used, for example, to coat solar panels. They are also used in the production of a wide range of plastics for everyday use.

We remind, BASF, the world's petrochemical major, is strengthening its global catalyst development and helping customers to bring new products faster to the market. As part of this strategy, BASF is building a new pilot plant center at its Ludwigshafen site.

BASF will build a new hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) facility at Chalampe, near Mulhouse, in northeastern France and plans to expand polyamide 6,6 capacity at its nearby site in Freiburg in southwest Germany. BASF decided to build a new hexamethylene diamine (HMD) plant in Chalampe, France. The new plant is set to increase BASF’s annual HMD production capacity to 260,000 metric tons. Production is expected to start in 2024. Furthermore, BASF will expand its polyamide 6.6 production in Freiburg, Germany starting 2022.

BASF's Intermediates division develops, produces and markets an extensive range of more than 600 intermediates worldwide. The most important product groups include amines, diols, polyalcohols, acids and specialties. Intermediates serve, for example, as starting materials for coatings, plastics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, detergents and crop protection products. Innovative intermediates from BASF help to improve the properties of the products manufactured with them and the efficiency of production processes. The ISO 9001-certified Intermediates division operates from sites in Europe, Asia and North America. In 2020, the business sector generated sales to third parties of approximately EUR2.6 billion.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- With the construction of a new state-of-the-art innovation center in Worms (Germany), Rohm (Darmstadt, Germany) intends to further expand its technology leadership, as per the company's press release.

In future, around 100 scientists of the chemical company will work on the development of new products and processes under one roof. “By pooling our research activity at the biggest production site we have anywhere in the world, Rohm is set to expand on its leading market position,” says Michael Pack, Chief Executive Officer of Rohm. The construction site is currently under preparation, with completion scheduled for early 2023.

The new innovation center will feature modern laboratories and pilot plants. This will offer Rohm employees ideal conditions to develop new processes, products and applications with a view to breaking into new markets.

As a global company with 15 production sites on four continents, Rohm is also strengthening its research activities in the USA and China. In the past year, the company commissioned a technological center in Shanghai. At the same time, construction work is proceeding on a new technological center in Wallingford (Connecticut, USA), where research work will commence before the end of this year.

“Our global research activity sends a strong signal to the market and underlines our aspiration to be a leading supplier in the field of methaycrylate chemicals,” says Hans-Peter Hauck, COO at Rohm.

As MRC informed previously, Rohm carried out a scheduled turnaround in September 2021 of its methacrylate monomers plant at Worms, Germany. No specific date or duration for the planned maintenance program was given. The company announced in early January a series of scheduled shutdowns for four of its methyl methacrylate (MMA) and methacrylate monomer facilities in the first half of 2021, including one planned for 10–22 March also at its Worms plant. The other plants planned for turnaround in the first six months of the year are in Wesseling, Germany; Shanghai, China; and Fortier, Louisiana.

The principal application, consuming approximately 75% of the MMA, is the manufacture of polymethyl methacrylate acrylic plastics (PMMA). Methyl methacrylate is also used for the production of the co-polymer methyl methacrylate-butadiene-styrene (MBS), used as a modifier for polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

With 3,500 employees and 15 production sites worldwide, Rohm is one of the world’s leading manufacturers in the methacrylate business. The medium-sized company with branches in Germany, China, the USA, Russia, and South Africa has more than 80 years of experience in methacrylate chemistry and a strong technology platform. Our best-known brands include PLEXIGLAS®, ACRYLITE®, MERACRYL™, DEGALAN®, DEGAROUTE® and CYROLITE®.
MRC