PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2013

PET news 6 PET planet insider Vol. 14 No. 01+02/13 www.petpla.net Sipa partners with Athena Automation to launch PET preform injection moulding machines After an initial period of cooperation in designing an innovative product line for making preforms, Sipa along with Athena Automation, founded by Robert Schad, founder and former CEO of Husky Injection Molding Systems, have agreed to formalise their partnership. The goal of the part- nership is to use synergies between the two companies to build a leading global product line and service organisa- tion. Athena Automation’s facility is located north of Toronto, Canada where they have been developing and validating a new technology for the PET market. Athena has been working for three years on a production platform that they claim will raise the bar in terms of reliabil- ity. Features that make the Athena machine stand out are fast cycles, improved accuracy, increased uptime, smaller footprint, lower power consumption, and design simplicity. Athena and Sipa have been working together for several months, fine-tuning the system. Sipa will manage the sales, service and integration of all Athena PET preform machines on an exclusive worldwide basis, with Athena’s support. This arrangement strengthens Sipa’s base and rounds up their product line from low cavitation, multi-mould change applica- tions to high volume production of beverage preforms. This past year at the NPE exhibition in Orlando, Florida, Sipa introduced the XForm injection moulding system that is capa- ble of handling moulds with upwards of 96 cavities. The new Athena machines complement XForm. www.sipa.it Onex buys KraussMaffei Onex Corporation, an established private equity fund listed on the Toronto Stock exchange, has announced completion of the acquisition of plastic and rubber pro- cessing equipment manufacturer KraussMaffei Group, which develops and markets its products under the KraussMaffei, KraussMaffei Berstorff and Netstal brands. The acquisition achieved completion effective December 28, 2012, at a total price of €568 million. Onex Partners III invested $353 million, of which Onex’ share is about $89 million as a limited partner in the Fund. KraussMaf- fei Onex’ businesses have assets of $39 billion, generate annual revenues of $34 billion and employ approximately 235,000 people worldwide. www.kraussmaffeigroup.com Indorama reorganises PET production capacity Indorama Ventures PCL (IVL) has announced plans to expand its PET polymers production capacity in the USA, by the establishment of a new plant with a capac- ity of 540,000t/a. Construction is expected to be com- pleted in Q4 2015 and will take IVL’s total PET capacity in North America to 2,100,000t/a. The plant is intended to take advantage of expected growth in North America, while maintaining a low cost structure. IVL had previ- ously announced its intention to expand PET production at its Polish site. The company’s board has now decided to carry out a significant debottlenecking exercise, rather than establish a new line. www.indoramaventures.com Starlinger delivers first PET recycling line to Uzbekistan Starlinger has supplied the equipment for the first complete PET recycling project in Uzbekistan, installed by Uzbek recycler Geleon Link. The Tashkent- based company has purchased a Starlinger recoStar PET 125 HC iV+ recy- cling line, including a viscoStar 120 SSP unit, for processing post-consumer washed and dried PET bottle flakes. The line has a total output capacity of around 8,000t/a. The recycled food-grade PET material is destined mainly for the domestic market. Starlinger says that its recoStar PET 125 HC iV+ line produces food-grade regranulate suitable for various applications. The recy- cling/decontamination process meets FDA/EFSA and brand owner require- ments. Recycling activities are only just getting under way in Eastern Euro- pean countries. The Geleon Link project fits into the framework of Uzbekistan’s “Policy of Localisation”, which is aimed at reducing the expenditure of valuable foreign currencies on imported goods. The country has been importing around 70,000t/a of PET granulate, at an average price of US$ 2,000/ton. www.starlinger.co m Erratum In Issue No 12/2012 an inadvert- ent error occurred in the article entitled Chips & Grapes by Novapet (pages 12-15). On Page 12 it was stated that Barbastro is part of the Catalunya region. This is of course, incorrect: Bar- bastro is situated in northern Aragón, in the province of Huesca. The reference in the article to the ongoing Catalunya political debate in connection with Bar- bastro is thus erroneous.