PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2011

PET news 6 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 06/11 www.petpla.net Husky acquires KTW Husky Injection Molding Systems has completed its acquisition of KTW of Waidhofen, Austria, a leading manu- facturer and global supplier of closure mould-making. Husky says that the acquisition makes it the closure indus- try’s only provider of complete injection moulding systems, including mould, machine, hot runner and temperature controller, as well the provision of a range of consulting and after-sales services. Husky will offer KTW-branded closure moulds as part of its fully-integrated turnkey sys- tems. www.husky.ca M&G to build next-generation PET and PTA plants in the U.S. The M&G Group, of Tortona, Italy, has announced that it will build a next-generation technology PET plant in the United States, co-located and fully integrated with a new PTA plant at the same site. Approximately 250 jobs will be created at the plants, with an additional 700 indirect positions and 3,000 jobs during construction. PTA (puri- fied terephthalic acid) is the primary raw material used in the production of PET. The new PET single line plant will have a capacity of 1,000kt/a (approx 2.2 billion lbs/year) and will employ, on a larger scale, the same technology as M&G’s single-reactor Suape (Brazil) PET plant, which came on stream in Q1 2007 and has since been success- fully debottlenecked to 650 kt/a. The PTA unit will have a capacity of 1,200 kt/a (approx 2.6 billion lbs/year), and will provide full upstream integration for all of M&G’s U.S. PET capacity. The new plant will be sited in Texas, Mississippi or Louisiana. The announcement of the selected location is expected by the end of June. www.gruppomg.com Amcor acquires Ball Plastics Packaging (Americas) Amcor Rigid Plastics North America has acquired all pro- duction sites previously belonging to Ball Plastics Packaging Americas. Amcor is the leading North American manufacturer of PET bottles for beverages, liquid foods and custom appli- cations. Assets acquired with the takeover of Ball include the InnoPET Plasmax barrier coating system developed by KHS Plasmax and installed at multiple facilities by Ball during the past few years. InnoPET Plasmax is a patented silicone oxide (SiO x ) interior barrier coating that has glass-like features but without the weight. It protects contents from escape or ingress of O 2 or CO 2, and from flavour scalping. Amcor says that internal plasma coating with SiO x will continue to be used as a universal barrier system for sensitive products. Amcor supplies the North American market with over a quarter of a billion Plasmax coated PET bottles annually. www.amcor.com Colormatrix acquires Grayson Silicone Dispersions ColorMatrix Corporation, the thermoplastic industry additive, colorant and dosing technologies supplier, has announced its acquisition of Gayson Silicone Dispersions Inc., based in Barberton, Ohio, USA. Gayson is a special- ist in high consistency rubber (HCR), liquid silicone rubber (LSR) and room temperature vulcanisation (RTV) silicone, and in dispersions (colorants and additives) for silicone rubber. The company supplies manufacturers across diverse industries including automotive / aerospace parts, airbag coatings, healthcare, cosmetics, household and architectural products. The acquisition is in line with Color- Matrix’s strategy of expansion into new markets and tech- nologies through both internal R&D and acquisitions, while also enabling the extension of its application capabilities. www.colormatrix.com Interpack 2011 reflects upturn Interpack 2011, the trade fair for the packaging sector and related processing industries, attracted 2,700 exhibi- tors from 60 nations, spread across 19 halls at the Düs- seldorf Trade Fair Centre from May 12 to 18, 2011. Around 166,000 trade visitors attended, of whom more than 100,000 were from outside of Germany and approaching three-quarters were decision-makers and management level. A number of exhibitors reported specific orders and Christian Traumann, President of interpack 2011 and Man- aging Director of exhibitor Multivac Sepp Haggenmüller, said that his company’s stand had generated 30% more contacts than at the last Interpack, in 2008. Sustainabil- ity, safety and convenience were the overriding themes at the exhibition. The ‘Save Food’ campaign, which aims to fight international food loss and was organised by Messe Düsseldorf in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, was unveiled at the exhibition and attracted over 300 congress partici- pants, ranging from food producers and the packaging industry through to retailers and representatives of politics, society and non-government organisations. ‘Innovation- parc Packaging’ brought companies from across the value chain to a series of workshops covering best practices for the future. The next Interpack will take place in May 2014, at Dusseldorf. www.interpack.com