Marketing

According to a survey by the International Rubber Study Group, in 2013 combined world production of natural and synthetic rubber exceeded 27.5 million tons, increasing by 3.1% over the previous year. Specifically, natural rubber was just over 12 million tons (+3.8%) with Thailand holding its top ranking among main...

Will this third consecutive month of rising exports be enough to give Italian equipment manufacturers a much-needed injection of confidence? To be sure, statistically speaking at least, we can now catch a glimpse of the long-awaited recovery in production (or at least a reversal of the downward trend), propelled precisely by...

The recent merger of two of the world’s largest producers of machinery for the production of brushes and brooms - the Italian company Borghi, headquartered in Castelfranco Emilia and the Belgian company Boucherie, based in Izegem - has produced the Boucherie-Borghi Group. Both partners are well positioned on...

Philip Law, BPF’s new director-general took the helm of the BPF (the British Plastics Federation) on the retirement of Peter Davis on 1st July. Darren Muir replaces finance and administration director, Alan Davey, who also has retired. Stephen Hunt became membership services director and Sarah Plant, public..

On July 1 Huntsman celebrates the completion of its new 38 million euro iron sulfate plant at its titanium dioxide pigment manufacturing facility in Scarlino (near Grosseto, Tuscany, Italy). The new plant means Huntsman can now use a wider range of feedstock to produce its Tioxide and Altiris pigments, reduce the generation of...

The “design competition” by Plast 2015 and Poli.design brings together industry and academia for a contest that combines technology and creativity to break down the impact of waste and promote the recycling of plastic products. Innovative and original concepts for rapid consumption, temporary, single-use disposable...

Doss is holding a series of conferences in India at three different industrial districts that are currently experiencing impressive expansion: Pune, Bangalore and New Delhi. The conferences will be technical in content, target rubber gasket manufacturers, and focus on the concept of artificial vision, comparing manual control...

Ineos will acquire Basf’s 50% share in Styrolution, a joint venture between the companies. The purchase price to be paid by Ineos amounts to €1.1 billion. The transaction is subject to approval by the appropriate antitrust authorities. Styrolution will continue to operate as an independent company until the completion of the deal...

The premium independent private investment company, Ardian, announced on June 26 that it has signed a binding agreement to acquire Italmatch Chemicals, Italy’s leading specialty chemicals manufacturer, headquartered in Genoa. The Italian company has production facilities in Italy, Germany, United Kingdom and Spain...

The umbrella associations Euromap (European Plastics and Rubber Machinery) and the American SPI (Society of the Plastics Industry) have signed a declaration of intent on free trade within the plastics machinery industry to strengthen their competitive position in the global marketplace thereby helping to safeguard the industry’s...

Maria Chiara Franceschetti took over as Gefran’s new CEO on April 29, 2014. MacPlas asked her a few questions about the new direction the Brescia-based business is taking in the wake of the recent edition of the SPS Italia Show (held in Parma from 20 to 22 May this year), where the company showcased its latest products in...

On June 6 EuPC elected Michael Kundel (CEO at Renolit in Germany) as its new President. Michael Kundel is succeeding Bernhard Borgardt who chaired EuPC for the last 6 years. In his opening statement Michael Kundel reconfirmed the need to defend the interest of plastics converters...

The first ChemOrbis Turkey Polyolefins Conference took place in Istanbul on June 10, 2014 with the participation of 150 companies and more than 230 players. The morning sessions started with Nexant Asia’s manager Andrew Lee Fagg’s presentation about the monomer outlook in global markets. Fagg mainly talked about the...

The report presented by Giorgio Colombo, the president of Assocomaplast, the Italian plastics and rubber processing machinery and moulds manufacturers' association, at the annual meeting of the association on June 10, revealed that 2013 was a year of consolidation for the plastics and rubber industry. With an overall...

The promotion of Plast 2015 makes a stop in Argentina and in France. On the occasion of Argenplas 2014 (Buenos Aires, June 16-19), at stand D-62A, in Hall 2-3, people can find an information point on Plast 2015, who already registered several interested operators during the first day of exhibition. Also at FIP 2014...

The final results are not in yet for the eighteenth edition of Plastpol, which took place in Kielce, Poland on 27-30 May. According to surveys by Assocomaplast, which had its own information stand at the fair, the total number of visitors did not exceed the 17,000 recorded during the previous edition (the organizers...

On 3 June in its Millesimo (Savona, Italy) facility, Demont officially unveiled “De Fuel”, a plant that transforms plastics into diesel fuel. There were more than 50 companies represented at the event, including large multi-utilities and smaller firms, which all responded enthusiastically to the new industrial product...

With a total of 640,000 tons processed in Italy in 2013, PVC has recorded a slight dip of 3% with respect to last year’s levels (660,000 tons), substantially in line with the trend of plastics generally. However, the two different types showed opposite trends: while rigid PVC fell by 7 percentage points, soft PVC grew by almost...

The tension increases. Soccer fans are eagerly awaiting the World Cup kick-off on June 12. But the official match ball - the "Brazuca" - is already available for a couple of months. It packs all the know-how and expertise gained in a nearly 30-year partnership between adidas and Bayer MaterialScience. The two companies...

A specialist in the construction of plastic and powder coating mixing solutions, Promixon counts TMX turbomixers among its lead products. The turbomixers are single or combined with the CMX high performance horizontal coolers, and the TRX high speed mixer containers, for fast mixing of power coating, additive, colour...