Eduardo Castro, notable manufacturer of 2008

Tag: plastic pipe extruder

Thirty-one years ago directors of the Tehmco Enterprise Group (Renca/Santi-ago, Chile) decided that specialization and innovation were the answers to its future. The company, originally a processor of plastics toys and household goods, decided to target plastic pipes for mining, potable water, drainage, and submarine markets.

Today the processor has a staff of more than 200, churning out 30,000 tonnes/yr of pipe with diameters ranging from 16-2000 mm, says Eduardo Castro, technical director at the company. With two plants housing 25 extrusion lines, mainly from German equipment producer Battenfeld (Bad Oeynhausen), the company, which earned $70 million in annual sales last year, is one of the top Latin American pipe processors.

“Tehmco’s history has been linked to innovation, in terms of new product developments designed for specific market needs as well as through the use of the latest production technology available,” says Castro. The company today processes mainly PE100 high-density polyethylene pipe, since he says the price difference between PE 80 and PE100 resin now overlaps so there is little cost difference. “The price increases [of resin] experienced in the last years have mainly had the effect of requiring, on our part, increased need for working capital,” he says. Whenever possible the company tries to pass on these increases via higher prices of its products.

But Castro says that despite price hikes in all building and construction raw materials, the plastic pipe market in Chile has nonetheless experienced continuous growth. In particular, the use of polyethylene pipes at the expense of vinyl, ductile iron, or steel has helped boost the market. Cement pipes are not permitted in Chile.

However Castro says the company still faces competition from local and Latin American processors extruding pipes up to 1200-mm diameter, as well as from Canada and the U.S. for larger sizes. But targeting project-related markets, such as the copper and molybdenum compounds mining industries, for super-sized PE100 pipes, has helped propel the processor to its highest growth rates so far.

Castro says that finding qualified extrusion equipment operators in Chile is tough, and therefore the company has had to undertake its own training program both in its home market and abroad.