PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2014

PET news 6 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 05/14 www.petpla.net Sale of Sacmi’s Plastics Division to Kingsbury The Sacmi Group has officially completed the transfer of its entire Plastics Division to the Kingsbury Group, Roches- ter, New York, USA. According to Sacmi Group’s General Manager Pietro Cassani, the sale is intended to underline Sacmi’s focus on the ceramics and packaging sectors. Cas- sani will, following this operation, become a member of the Kingsbury Group’s board of directors. The three business units concerned, the designer of injection moulding presses Negri Bossi, the manufacturer of very large presses Bi-Power and the provider of robotised solutions Robolino-Systrama of Vignate, currently worth some €100 million, are expected to experience new growth opportunities under the management of the new owner. The new owners have expressed their intention to maintain the current output facilities, especially in Cologno and at Sacmi Imola.Kingsbury Group is a global player in the automotive, aerospace and electronic components industries, doing busi- ness for over 120 years. www.sacmi.com Indorama Ventures acquires Sasa in Turkey Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited has announced the acquisition of 51% of leading Polyester and PET producer Sasa Polyester Sanayi A.Ş in Turkey through its wholly-owned subsidiary Indorama Netherlands B.V. from Hacı Ömer Sabancı Holding A.Ş. Sasa is a publicly listed company on the Borsa Istanbul and IBV will be conducting a mandatory tender offer for the remaining 49% of Sasa’s share at Borsa Istanbul in accordance with the requirements of Turkish Capital Markets Legislation. Sasa incorporates integrated feedstock and polymer facilities producing DMT, staple fibres, filament yarns, PET, PBT polymers and speciality chemicals with a total plant capacity of 600,000t/a. Sasa supplies both Turkish and European markets, serving over 54 countries with 150 differ- ent types of products. www.indoramaventures.com Octal reports more than US$ 3 billion in sales The PET producer Octal has surpassed the US$ 3 billion dollar mark in sales, a record in the company’s six-year his- tory. The company also claims to have recorded its highest quarter production volume of PET in Q1, 2014 with March 2014 being its second best month ever of PET production volumes. The latest capacity expansion of its state-of-the-art PET complex in Salalah, Oman has increased production of bottle grade PET resin by 40% with a monthly run-rate of US$ 100 million. Octal accounts for approximately 15% of Oman’s non-oil exports, which equates to about 1.5% of the national GDP. www.octal.com Greiner Packaging starts in the US Greiner Packaging International is moving to new offices in May 2014 at its first US site in Pittston, Penn- sylvania. Production will start in July, and initial machine operation should start by the fourth quarter of this year. The focus is on premium packaging for the dairy industry. A 10,000m 2 area is available for the first development stage in Pittston, Pennsylvania. Greiner Packaging Inter- national will use it primarily to manufacture high-quality premium packaging (cardboard-plastic combinations as well as printed cups). The new site is said to lie in a logis- tically accessible and geographically favourable location. From the packaging industry’s point of view, the Penn- sylvania region is among the most attractive in the US. Around 40% of the US population lives in the country’s Northeast and Midwest. Many milk-processing plants are also based here. Most of the employees will come from the region. www.greiner.at Arburg expands central production plant On April 28, 2014, Arburg held the official ground- breaking ceremony for a new assembly hall in Lossburg, Germany, which will expand the central production loca- tion by 13% to just under 165,000m 2 . Initial excavation work began in March 2014 and the completion date has been set for the autumn of 2015. With the new building section, Arburg is responding to the increasing demand for large injection moulding machines up to a clamping force of 5,000kN and complete production cells. The cap- ital investment for the new building section, to the tune of many tens of millions of euros, is said to demonstrate a clear commitment to Lossburg as a production location. www.arburg.com