Huhtamaki to consolidate its flexible packaging footprint in Europe

Huhtamaki has made the decision to consolidate the production footprint of its Flexible Packaging segment in Europe and will be closing its Flexible Packaging production facility in Prague, Czech Republic, said the company.

All production and supporting activities at the facility will be scaled down during the second half of the year, with the closure of the operations completed by March 31, 2024. Production will gradually be transferred to Huhtamaki’s other manufacturing sites.

The decision affects all 198 employees in the site. Huhtamaki will support its employees during this period, including providing information about vacancies in other Huhtamaki units in the Czech Republic and across Europe.

Huhtamaki currently has two manufacturing units in Czech Republic. The closure of the Prague site does not affect the Fiber packaging operations in Okrisky which today employs 274 people.

The Flexible Packaging Prague facility does not represent a material share of the sales or profits of Huhtamaki. Huhtamaki will book closure-related costs of approximately EUR 35 million in the second quarter of 2023. The costs will be booked as items affecting comparability and are mostly non-cash items. Over time, the closure is expected to be cash positive and improve our competitiveness in Europe.

We remind, Huhtamaki has inaugurated a 12,500m2 expansion of its paper-based packaging manufacturing site in Nules, Spain. The expansion involved a EUR20m (USD20.8m) investment, which included a grant of EUR2.2m (USD2.3m) from the Conselleria de Hacienda y Modelo Economico. Huhtamaki said the expansion will begin production this January and double the site’s capacity.

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BASF has spun off a digital manufacturing startup Replique from its business incubator, the German chemicals major announced.

The Chemovator spin-off was made after successfully closing a late seed funding round, led by digital technology investor STS Ventures, to further build its business.

Replique provides digital on demand industrial parts to serve the original manufacturing equipment (OEM) market and allows its customers to store parts digitally.

The start-up has the first fully encrypted 3D printing platform to make part management and production of small series more sustainable.

The funding round was led by STS Ventures as an experienced early stage investor and with manager partner Stephan Schubert. STS will also bring entrepreneurial experience to support Replique.

Schubert was the former founder and managing director of online financial portal Onvista until its spinoff in 2007.

We remind, BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) will expand its global alkyl polyglucosides (APG) production capacity with two expansions at its sites in Bangpakong, Thailand, and Cincinnati, Ohio. By expanding in two regions in parallel, BASF, the global market leader for APGs, can strengthen its position and serve customers even faster and more flexible from the regional supply points, while at the same time reducing cross-regional volume flows. The additional capacities are expected to come on stream in 2025.

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Amcor launches further developments of its high performing paper packaging range and invests in increased paper packaging manufacturing capacity in Europe, said the company.

Amcor, a global leader in developing and producing responsible packaging solutions, has announced the expansion of its AmFiber™ Performance Paper packaging range in Europe to include heat seal sachets for dry culinary and beverage applications, such as instant coffee, drink powders, spices, seasonings, and dried soups.

AmFiber™ Performance Paper is a recyclable, high barrier, paper-based packaging that was initially introduced in 2022 for snacks and confectionery. Appearing on store shelves today for prominent snacks and confectionery brands, it offers high-barrier protection against oxygen and moisture, with excellent performance on brand owners’ packing machines.

In addition to expanding its application to new product categories, Amcor has invested in manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand for this kind of paper packaging. The company has integrated a state-of-the-art production line in its Amcor Flexibles Alzira plant in Spain, in support of Amcor’s global businesses. The production line is equipped to provide both cold- and heat-seal AmFiber™ packaging, delivering airtight seals to guarantee the proper product protection through the supply chain and along the full shelf life.

We remind, Amcor, a global leader in developing and producing responsible packaging solutions, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Moda Systems, a leading manufacturer of state-of-the-art, automated protein packaging machines.

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Trinseo is cutting its quarterly dividend by 93% from USD0.14 cents/share to USD0.01 cent, the US-based international engineered materials and styrenics producer said.

The cut, along with reductions in working capital and capital expenditures and an asset sale at Matamoros, Mexico, would improve Trinseo’s cash and liquidity profile by more than USD100m in 2023, it said. It is the second dividend cut this year, following a 56% reduction announced in February.

The decision to cut the dividend was “prudent, given the current low-demand economic environment while enabling continued investment in our growth and sustainability initiatives”, said CEO Frank Bozich.

We remind, Trinseo, a specialty material solutions provider, announced the inauguration of its polycarbonate (PC) dissolution pilot facility in Terneuzen, the Netherlands. The new pilot facility is a major step in Trinseo’s commitment to sustainability, part of the journey in realizing the company’s sustainability goals. The guests of honor at the inauguration ceremony included Jo-Annes de Bat, Provincial Executive (responsible for regional economy) of the Netherlands.

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Thyssenkrupp Uhde and Johnson Matthey have delivered a product solution to in-crease the ammonia capacity at Koch Fertilizer’s Fort Dodge, Iowa (USA) facility, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

During the revamp of the existing ammonia plant, the team integrated the uhde dual-pressure process, which was installed upstream of the existing ammonia synthesis loop.

Koch Fertilizer, a leading fertilizer manufacturer and distributor, performed a USD140-MM revamp at its Fort Dodge facility to further improve reliability, environmental and safety performance. The investment is expected to increase ammonia production capacity by 85,000 tons per year.

To help achieve the additional capacity, process experts from thyssenkrupp Uhde developed a new cartridge insert for the existing pressure shell based on latest design principles. Thanks to thorough scheduling, most of the installation work was done while the existing plant was running. Commissioning of the new uhde ammonia converter was smooth with Johnson Matthey on-site support and did not impact plant start-up time.

A key challenge was the very low ammonia synthesis operating pressure of only 960 psig/66 barg, which could be solved by combining Johnson Matthey’s high-performance catalyst KATALCOTM 74-1 with an adapted process design from thyssenkrupp Uhde. This joint solution enabled the increased ammonia synthesis capacity. The same combination of the highly efficient uhde dual pressure process for ammonia production and KATALCOTM 74-1 catalyst from Johnson Matthey is already used in all the world’s largest ammonia plants operating with capacities of more than 1 million tons of ammonia per year.

We remind, Thyssenkrupp nucera AG & Co. KGaA (Dortmund, Germany) is partnering with OxyChem to install the latest generation eBiTAC v7 electrolyzers to support the conversion of its Battleground plant in LaPorte, Texas, from the diaphragm to membrane chlor-alkali technology.

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