Arburg draws 4100; new machines introduced

Tag : compound geomembrane


Thousands of injection molders made the trek to Lossburg, Germanyin early April to visit the manufacturing facility of injectionmolding machine manufacturer Arburg, attend presentations onmolding, and of course to see the firm’s machines inoperation. About 50 presses were running throughout the three-day‘Technology Days’ event, forming everything fromthin-walled packaging to automotive parts, thermoset ashtrays, andlengthy profiles.
Michael Hehl, spokesperson for the management team, said Arburgstill awaits its final accounting for 2007 but that all indicationsare that the company passed €400 million in revenue, about a10% increase over 2006 results. “This didn’t come fromprice increases,” according to Helmut Heinson, thefirm’s sales director, who credits an increased share in anumber of markets for the rise.
According to Hehl, electric machines now account for 12% of orders,versus 10% the previous year. The share of orders for thefirm’s Golden Edition range of machines rose from 25 to 27%,and the share of larger machines (Arburg’s 630 S to 920 Smodels) rose from 9 to 14%.
The firm’s leadership was cautious in its prediction for 2008orders and revenue, noting machine manufacturers have seen a dropin orders in most regions, and Arburg likely will also be affected.Though the total number of injection molding machines sold in NorthAmerica has dropped significantly, Heinson said Arburg’ssales there have grown as it has grabbed market share; about 40% ofthe firm’s sales in North America are for all-electricpresses.
Among new machines and projects presented during the event, somehighlights included a new size for Arburg’s vertical machinerange, the Allrounder 375 V, a 50-tonne machine that, at the event,molded profiles using the Exjection process/tooling developed byAustrian toolmaker IB Steiner. The manufacturer also has added arotary table machine to its Golden Edition range of presses, whichcome with limited options but offer delivery within a few weeks.During the open house, this new machine processed bottle openersfrom a leatherfiber-reinforced compound.

Borouge eyeing PO output boost in Middle East

Middle Eastern polyolefins (PO) supplier Borouge (Abu Dhabi,U.A.E.) announced in April during the Dubai Plast Pro 2008 polymerand processing conference in Dubai that it is consideringincreasing its output beyond the existing plant and trains that areto come onstream in 2010. If the study justifies doing so, thecompany may bring a new plant online by 2014 with 2.5 milliontonnes/yr PO capacity. That would bring total Borouge capacity inthe Middle East to 4.5 million tonnes/yr of polyethylene andpolypropylene.
Borouge is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.(ADNOC) and Borealis A/S (Vienna), one of Europe’s largestpolyolefin suppliers. MPW’s Robert Colvin attended theconference.
The Borouge 3 study would develop and supply high-puritylow-density polyethylene (LDPE) grades for wire and cable; theseare in high demand for growing infrastructure development in theregion and in Southeast Asia, says Abdulaziz Abdulla Alhajri, CEOof Abu Dhabi Polymers (Borouge). Also under consideration are waysto increase the company’s competitive position in pipe,packaging, and automotive grades.
The company’s Borouge 2 project, currently under constructionand to start up in two years’ time, brings on twopolypropylene plants with a total output of 800,000 tonnes/yr alongwith a PE plant with an annual capacity of 540,000 tonnes/yr.Borouge already has 600,000 tonnes of PE production in operation atRuwais, U.A.E.

JER Envirotech to expand to South Carolina

Wood-plastic composite (WPC) panel board extruder and compoundedpellet supplier JER Envirotech International Corp. (Vancouver, BC)is scouting locations in the Greenville, SC area for a 2008 shiftof its joint-venture operation in Malaysia to the U.S. Just beforemagazine close, Ed Trueman, JER’s president, CEO, anddirector, told MPW he would go to the area in late April toevaluate greenfield and existing sites for relocation.
“[JER] has an anchor piece of business that compels us tocome to that location,” Trueman said, “and we’regoing to build out there because logistically it’s a verygood place for us to be.” In November 2007, JER announced afour-year supply agreement with Guardian Building ProductsDistribution Inc. (Greenville, SC) to supply that company with itsproprietary WPC pellets. In addition to being a building materialdistributor, Guardian manufactures a line of light-densityfiberglass-insulation products.
Trueman said JER will wind down its Malaysian operation, shiftingall its equipment to Greenville, including a twin-screw Entekcompounding extruder that will act as the new site’s initialcapacity. They company also plans to add more capacity to the newsite. In British Columbia, JER operates three custom lines fromEntek Extruders for its panel-board product, with two dedicated tocompounding WPC pellets.

Middle East capacity will change landscape


More than 1000 attended the 23rd edition of Chemical MarketAssociates Inc.’s (CMAI; Houston) World PetrochemicalConference in April in Houston, TX. On the agenda was thevolatility in the sector and the rapid pace of change, which willaccelerate in coming years with massive amounts of capacity set tocome online in the Middle East and Asia. “The new Middle Eastcapacity will forever alter trade patterns we’ve seen foryears,” explained Nick Vafiadis, business director forpolyolefins at CMAI, with Europe likely to be buried in plasticsimported from the Middle East, and some of it threatening NorthAmerica’s position as a net exporter. Tony Potter, directorof olefins studies at CMAI for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa,said the Middle East region will add 20 million tons of newethylene capacity by 2012, more than doubling current capacity, aswell as 8.6 million tons of new propylene capacity, representing38% of global additions in the 2007-2012 timeframe.
At the conference, MPW spoke with Abdullah Saeed Al Darmaki, VPpetrochemicals at Abu Dhabi Basic Industries Corp. (ADBIC), whichis one of the ongoing projects in the Middle East quest to buildnew industries around the region’s hydrocarbon resources.Local governments increasingly are interested in keeping plasticspellets in-country and converting them into products headed forexport as well as to meet growing domestic demand. ADBIC, aquasi-governmental agency, is setting up a 4.1-km2 “PolymerPark” which will include room for 60 plastics processors, atechnical center, and a 350,000m2 business park. Al Darmaki saysADBIC has been very focused in the kinds of companies it wants toattract, signing on nine thus far with an emphasis on items thatcan be used locally, including pipe, wire and cable, geomembranefilms, and rotomolded and blowmolded tanks. The country is a netimporter of most plastics goods, and Al Darmaki says that fact,paired with the weakening dollar, has led to double-digit inflationin the country, which is in the midst of a massive constructionboom.

MGS Mfg. Group Inc. opens new facility in Mexico