PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2010

PET news 6 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 04/10 www.petpla.net Sacmi reorganisation and executive appointments Vezio Bernardi made Managing Director of Sacmi Filling Sacmi Imola, the Italian packaging and labelling equip- ment company, has announced a reorganisation of its business and the appointment of a new executive team. A new division – Sacmi Beverage – has been created and will combine the activities of Sacmi Filling, Sacmi Labelling, Sacmi Packaging and Sacmi Imola. What the company describes as a strategic devel- opment began in early 2009, with the acquisition by Sacmi Imola of a minority holding in Sacmi Filling and Labelling. The purchase was followed by investment in new storage facilities and produc- tion plant facilities amounting to more than €50 million. Sacmi Beverage integrates plant engineering and budgeting part and also coordinates the management administration of the four com- panies. Ireneo Orlandi is the senior director of Sacmi Beverage. Vezio Bernardi has been appointed to guide the transition stage. He previously held a senior position with Sacmi Imola Closure Division. Plant engineering manager Giovanni Nervo will have responsibility for operations management and co-ordination of the plant engineering product range that integrates the Division’s component companies companies’ products. www.sacmi.com 25th international IKV Colloquium The 25th International Plastics Technology Colloquium was held on 3 and 4 March 2010 in the Eurogress Aachen, Germany. With some 500 experts attending, the number of participants remained constant compared with 2008, despite the economic downturn. Participants represented the entire spectrum of the plastics industry and included raw materi- als manufacturers, machine and mould manufacturers and plastics processors plus their customers. Those taking part in Aachen came from 15 countries, with more than 250 companies and institutions represented. At its Jubilee Col- loquium, the IKV once again presented the latest research results, covering all the various different facets of plastics processing. The IKV highlighted the future prospects for plastics processing, under the strapline motto “Plastics tech- nology – looking ahead”. In the Part Design and Materials Technology Department, the latest development in the field of plasma-based refinement processes met with particular interest on the part of the attendees. In addition to the barrier coating of alternative materials such as polypropylene (PP) or polylactide (PLA), a new process variant was presented for the combined inner and outer coating of beverage bottles by the low-pressure process. The demonstration equip- ment developed specifically at the IKV allows a barrier layer system to be applied in a single process, where previously two separate processes were required. The result is greater cost efficiency. www.ikv-aachen.de Amcor PET Packaging renamed Following the US$1.9 billion acquisition of parts of Alcan Packaging by Amcor Ltd and subsequent company reorgani- sation, Amcor PET Packaging has been renamed Amcor Rigid Plastics. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, the renamed busi- ness group is one of seven operating units within its parent group. Amcor Rigid Plastics consists of Amcor PET Packag- ing; Bericap North America, a plastic closures joint venture between Amcor and the Bericap Group; and the plastics container unit of Alcan’s global pharmaceutical business. Bill Long, who had been president of Amcor PET Packaging, will head up the new business. The company says that the new name and identity reflects an expansion of its product range. Included in the acquisition were Alcan’s pharmaceutical rigid container busi- ness, which is a producer of containers made of PP, PE, and PET for over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, and other pharmaceutical needs. Amcor now owns Alcan’s extensive processing capabilities in stretch-blow, extrusion-blow, and injection blow moulding, along with expertise in multi-material processing. These resources will enable Amcor to move into new applications, materials and processes, the company said. The acquisition adds approximately US$160 million in sales and 800 employees across six plants, located in Mil- lville, NJ, DesPlaines, IL, Bethlehem, PA, Youngsville, NC in the US and Cayey, Puerto Rico, and Diadema, Brazil. Amcor is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. www.amcor.com New hotrunner factory in India Hotrunner technology company Mold-Masters announced on March 17, 2010 that it has opened a new production facil- ity in Coimbatore, India. The company already has a global design centre in India, which was opened in December 2006. Mold-Masters has had a presence in India since 1994, when it began selling and servicing its products in the country. It reported a significant increase in sales after establishing a presence in the sub-continent. The new facility will enable the company to manufacture for the growing Indian market and to enhance its support for new and existing customers, with tech- nical service, application engineering and rapid spare parts delivery. www.moldmasters.com Sale of Equipolymers manufacturing facility in Italy Equipolymers, the 50-50 joint venture between The Dow Chemical Company and Petroleum Industries Company (PIC) of Kuwait, announced in March that it is to sell its pure tereph- thalic acid (PTA) and polyethylene terephthalate resins (PET) production facilities at its manufacturing site in Ottana, Sicily, Italy to a joint venture between Ottana Energia and Indorama. The company said it will continue to run its manufacturing, R&D and new technologies activities at Schkopau, Germany. Ottana Energia, owned by Paolo Clivati, currently operates a 140 megawatt power and utilities plant on the Ottana manu- facturing site. Indorama is a global chemical producer of PTA, PET and polyester fibres and operates facilities in Thailand, the Netherlands, Lithuania, and the USA. The Ottana facility currently employs around 120 people. The sale is expected to complete on June 1, 2010. www.equipolymers.com