PRA November/December 2020 issue

DIGITAL EDITION www.plasticsandrubberasia.com

A S l A ’ S L E A D l N G m aga z l ne f o r t h e p las t l c s and r u b b e r l nd u s t r y

业 界新闻 材 料 新 闻: 假日时装 : 为永续发展尽最大努力

In this issue

Volume 35, No 258

publlshed slnce 1985

A S l A’ S L E A D l N G m aga z l ne f o r the plastlcs and rubber lndustry

Features 焦 點 內 容 13 材料新聞: 假日時裝: 為永續發展盡最大努力 16 Year-end Summary – 2020, a tough year for the global economies due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has presented some companies opportunities for new investments, innovations and digitalisation. We provide a round-up of companies that have made strides in their business, despite the adverse year 22 Packaging – The packaging sector explores climate-friendly solutions with graphene biopolymers, LDPE recyclates, and tray-to-tray recycling

24 Compounding/Extrusion Machinery – A round-up of the latest

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Arthur Schavemaker Tel: +31 547 275005 Email: arthur@kenter.nl Associate Publisher/Executive Editor Tej Fernandez Tel: +60 3 4260 4575 Email: tej@plasticsandrubberasia.com Senior Editor Angelica Buan Email: gel@plasticsandrubberasia.com Chinese Editor Koh Bee Ling Circulation Stephanie Yuen Email: stephanie@taramedia.com.my

from Coperion, Tubi and Maag Group

Regulars 概 要

Permits

2 Industry News

ISSN 1360-1245

6 Materials News

KDN PP 18785/08/2015 (034280)

MCI (P) 035/08/2019 Printer United Mission Press Sdn Bhd (Co. No: 755329-X) 25 & 27, Jalan PBS 14/14, Taman Perindustrian Bukit Serdang, 43300 Selangor, Malaysia.

10 業界新聞

Supplements 副 刊 The automotive industry is leading the race in net-zero carbon emissions with carbon neutral manufacturing, low emission technologies and new electric vehicles Indonesia’s deforestation, accelerating at a rapid rate, has raised the discussion on sustainability of the rubber sector, with environmental firm Mighty Earth pointing the finger at tyre major Michelin for exacerbating the deforestation in the country

On the Cover DIGITAL EDITION www.plasticsandrubberasia.com

A S l A’ S L E A D l N G m A G A z l N E f o r thE pLAStlcS AND rubbEr lNDuStry

业界新 闻 材料新闻: 假日时装 : 为永续发展尽最大努力

2020 has been a year of “survival of the fittest” in industry sectors. Faced with diluted sales, plant closures, halved capacities, and low workforce, major players are moving forward by implementing new strategies to overcome the tough situation

Connect @ facebook.com/PRA.Malaysia

twitter.com/PRA_Malaysia

is published 8 times a year in Mandarin and English by Kenter & Co Publishers’ Representatives BV. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the information contained in this publication is correct, the publisher makes no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the nature or accuracy of such material to the extent permitted by applicable law. © 2019 Kenter & Co Publishers’ Representatives BV No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or used in any form, or by any means, without specific prior permission from the publisher.

PRA is circulated free to trade readers in the plastics and rubber industry. Airmail subscriptions are available at US$160 within Asia and US$250 to all other countries outside Asia.

is a member of ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation)

www.plasticsandrubberasia.com www.rubberjournalasia.com www.injectionmouldingasia.com www.plasticsandrubberasia.cn

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

1

Industry News

M&As/Tie-ups/Financing • Vienna-headquartered integrated oil/gas company OMV has completed the acquisition of an additional 39% stake in chemicals firm Borealis from Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabibased strategic investment company, for US$4.68 billion.

OMV now holds a 75% interest in Borealis and Mubadala retains the rest.

• Materials firm Sabic has set up its Specialties strategic business unit (SBU) as a separate, standalone business, which precedes the acquisition of a 70% stake in Sabic from the Public Investment Fund (PIF) by oil giant Saudi Aramco.

• The first-ever blue loan to Thailandheadquartered integrated PET maker Indorama Ventures will lead to it recycling of 50 billion PET bottles/ year globally by 2025 or 750,000 tonnes/ year of rPET, in four countries in Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, India) and in Brazil. The US$300 million 2

financing package has been arranged by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.

• Mayzo Inc, a US supplier of speciality chemicals, has acquired Bio Accutech Inc, a distributor of speciality chemicals for the coatings, inks and plastics markets, to extend its global supply chain with new optical brighteners, photoinitiators and PVC additives. All activities will be managed through Mayzo’s newly established 61,000 sq ft operations centre in Walterboro.

• In a bid to refocus on its core olefin and PE business, Canada-based Nova Chemicals Corporation, which is wholly-owned

by Mubadala Investment Company, is selling its expandable styrenics (EPS) business to Styropek, a subsidiary of Mexican chemical firm Alpek. Nova will use the funds to advance a global circular economy for plastic. The business consists of

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

two product lines: EPS and Arcel resin, with manufacturing facilities in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and commercial operations in Asia.

• Swiss chemical firm Clariant is relaunching the sale of its pigments unit, after putting it on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is expected to send out information packages to prospective buyers of the unit, including PAI, Lone Star, Triton and SK Capital.

The company is continuing with its transformation programme, with the divestment of the Healthcare Packaging and Masterbatches businesses.

• German Evonik Venture Capital has sold its stake in Finnish medical technology firm Synoste Oy to Globus Medical.

• Auxiliary equipment supplier Piovan Group has acquired 100% shareholding in Doteco, which has since 1994 manufactured blending and control systems for extrusion of plastic films, sheets and synthetic fibres.

• US’s PureCycle Technologies, a PP recycling company with technology from Procter & Gamble Company, has been bought

by Roth CH Acquisition, backed by investment firms Roth Capital Partners and Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

The merger deal values PureCycle at about US$1.2 billion and is expected to close in 2021.

• Chemical firm Ineos is to acquire South African firm Sasol’s 50% equity interest in their joint venture Gemini HDPE manufacturing unit in La Porte, Texas, for US$404 million. Gemini is a toll-manufacturer of bimodal HDPE products serving the pipe and film markets.

• Styrenics supplier Ineos Styrolution has tied up with Ferrero Group, the maker of Nutella, Kinder, Tic Tac and Ferrero Rocher brands, to explore the feasibility of using its recycling concepts, such as depolymerisation, for future packaging solutions.

INDUSTRY NEWS • Finland’s renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel supplier Neste and South Korean petchem firm LG Chem are to develop the biopolymers and biochemicals market globally, and more specifically, in LG Chem’s home market.

• US-based private investment firm Graham Partners has completed the acquisition of Berry Global Group’s flexible packaging converting business.

Terms were not disclosed. The acquired business is comprised of six printing and laminating

flexible packaging facilities, formerly a part of Berry Global’s North American extrusion, converting and coating business.

• Singapore-based moulder and tool maker Sunningdale Tech has acquired US-based injection moulder Moldworx for US$4 million, through its whollyowned subsidiary, headquartered in Michigan.

Founded in 1995, Moldworx operate from a 24,000-sqft facility located in Arizona, and serves the medical, construction, agricultural, and pharmaceutical markets.

• US coatings firm PPG is to acquire Ennis-Flint, a global

manufacturer of coatings with a broad portfolio of pavement marking products, including paint, thermoplastics and other advanced traffic technologies. The transaction, valued at approximately US$1.15 billion, is expected to close within the next few months, subject to customary closing conditions.

• US firm Univar Solutions, a global chemical and ingredient distributor, is to acquire Zhuhai Techi Chem Silicone Industry Corporation to distribute specialty silicone solutions used primarily for the coatings, adhesives, sealants,

and elastomers (CASE) market.

The agreement is expected to close in mid-December.

Terms were not disclosed.

• US firm Nordson Corporation is divesting its screws and barrels product line from its polymer processing systems (PPS) division to Altair Investments.

Terms were not disclosed but Nordson expects the portfolio transaction to improve the company’s ongoing earnings and require a onetime, non-cash asset impairment charge of approximately US$87 million.

Industry News

Plant Expansions/Supply Tie-ups • US recycling business Nexus Fuels is to supply oil firm Shell 60,000 tonnes of pyrolysis liquid made from plastic waste over four years, to make chemicals.

Shell has also tied up with Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) to jointly study the feasibility of chemically recycling plastic waste in Singapore.

• Spanish petchem firm Repsol will supply circular styrene from chemical recycling, which supplier Elix Polymers will use to produce polymers such as ABS and SAN. In other news, Repsol is constructing an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) plant at is location in Puertollano (Spain), with a production capacity of 15 kilotonnes/year.

• Hengli Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Hengli Group, will license Invista Performance Technologies’ P8 purified terephathalic acid (PTA) technology for two PTA lines in Guangdong, China. Hengli is also operating another five PTA lines in Dalian, all of which utilise Invista’s PTA technology, with a total capacity of 12 million tonnes/year.

4

• US specialty chemical and CPVC supplier Lubrizol Advanced Materials and Grasim Industries, a flagship company of India’s Aditya Birla Group, are to manufacture and supply CPVC resin in India. The 100,000tonne/year CPVC plant at Grasim’s site in Gujarat will be the largest single-site capacity for CPVC resin production globally. The first phase is expected to be operational in 2022.

• Lactips, the French company launched in 2018 to produce a soluble plastic with zero environmental trace, is building its new plant in France, with EUR30 million to be invested over several years in the production facilities.

The investment is made possible by the recent round of fundraising with the SPI fund, managed

by Bpifrance and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation (MCHC), through Diamond Edge Ventures.

• Japanese firm Toyobo Co and Indorama Polyester Industries are to set up a new plant in Rayong, Thailand, to produce yarns for automobile airbags. It is expected to start operations in 2022, with a production capacity

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

of 11,000 tonnes/ year. In 2014, Toyobo and Indorama jointly acquired PHP Fibers, a German airbag yarn maker that held the second-largest share in the world at that time.

• Futerro, a subsidiary of the Belgian Galactic Group, has started operating the first integrated PLA production unit in China in collaboration with its partner BBCA Biochemical. Located in Anhui, the PLA unit has a capacity of 30,000 tonnes/year and is supplied by an 80,000 tonne-lactic acid unit, which also supplies to Galactic for lactic acid-based food ingredients for the Asian market.

• Lummus Technology’s Novolen business has been awarded a contract by China’s Hengyi Industries for a 1,000 kilotonnes/ year PP unit in Brunei. It will be Lummus’ largest PP licence to date and will be one of the largest PP units in the world.

• Japan’s Mitsubishi Chemical will end the production of methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer and methacrylic acid (MAA) at the Beaumont site of Lucite International, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi,

in Texas, US. The 135,000 tonne/yearplant commenced in 1992 and termination is scheduled for February 2021.

• UAE petchem firm Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), India’s Adani Group, BASF SE, Germany, and Austrian polyolefins maker Borealis Partners are to put on hold a project comprising a world-scale US$4 billion propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant, PP production and an acrylics value chain complex in India, having completed the feasibility study, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Indian film packaging maker SRF is setting up a second BOPP film line with a metalliser at its Indore plant. The existing capacity is 45,000 tonnes/year and will be upped to 60,000 tonnes/year.

• Supreme Petrochem Limited is planning a US$30 million expansion at its Nagothane plant, India. It is setting up a new line for production of PS, to enhance the production capacity by 80,000 tonnes/year; and revamping the expandable PS (EPS) plant to increase capacity by 20,000 tonnes/year by 2021.

INDUSTRY NEWS sq ft facility for R&D, and additive manufacturing in the US, for its patented Continuous Fiber 3D printing (CF3D) technology.

• Construction work on specialty chemicals company Evonik’s EUR400 million plant for PA12 is progressing. The first plant is currently being commissioned; further plants will follow by 2021, with full completion expected in the first half of 2021. With the additional plants for PA12 and its precursors being built in Germany, in addition to the existing production there, Evonik will increase its overall capacity for the polymer by more than 50%.

• Munich-based chemical company Wacker is to begin construction on a new production line for silane-terminated polymers in Germany, this year. Such hybrid polymers are used as binders for formulating adhesives and sealants, liquid waterproofing systems and woodflooring adhesives, among other applications.

• Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Company has suspended the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) work

for its proposed Duqm Petrochemical Project in Oman, due to the impact of Covid-19, even though it has completed 72% of the construction work.

• China’s Oriental Energy Company will use US firm Honeywell UOP’s C3 Oleflex technology for a PDH unit, which is scheduled to start up in Maoming, Guangdong, in 2022.

• US materials firm Avient Corporation has opened its new CycleWorks facility in Pogliano, Italy, to conduct testing and evaluations to help customers tackle and overcome the challenge of plastics recycling and the goal of a circular economy.

• US recycler of PS Agilyx Corporation has opened a European hub for recycling outside of Zurich, Switzerland.

Following Agilyx’s listing on the Oslo Stock Exchange in September, the company intends to use the net proceeds to increase project development globally.

• Injection moulding machine maker Wittmann Battenfeld, which is a part of Austrian auxiliary equipment supplier Wittmann, has moved to a new 850 sq m-site in São Paulo, Brazil.

• German chemicals firm BASF has increased its production capacity for advanced additives at its wholly-owned site in Nanjing, China.

It will allow BASF to produce high molecular weight dispersing agents, slip and levelling agents and other additives locally for Asian markets.

• BASF Petronas Chemicals Sdn Bhd (BPC), a joint venture between BASF and Malaysian stateowned Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd, will close down its butanediol (BDO) and derivatives plant in Kuantan, Malaysia, next year.

• German polymer firm Covestro has started construction of a new production plant for Vulkollan raw materials in the Map Ta Phut industrial zone in Thailand. Production is scheduled to start at the end of 2022.

• Polymer firm Invista has completed a 40,000-tonne/year PA6.6 polymer capacity expansion at its plant at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP). This addition brings the plant’s capacity to 190,000 tonnes/year.

It is also constructing a 215,000-tonne/ year hexamethylenediamine (HMD) plant

and a 400,000-tonne/ year adiponitrile (ADN) plant at SCIP. • US industrial technology firm Genomatica and Italian PA6 maker Aquafil are to build a demonstration scale facility to produce the largest quantity of 100% renewable PA6.

The first production runs are slated to create 50 tonnes of bio-nylon for precommercial use by Genomatica’s brand partners.

• Chemical firm Arkema will start up its 50% capacity increase of Kynar fluoropolymer for the lithium-ion battery business at its Changshu plant in China in December 2020, with the first commercial supplies slated for January 2021.

• Brazilian petchem firm Braskem and Denmark-based catalysts supplier Haldor Topsoe have achieved demoscale production of biobased monoethylene glycol (MEG), which is used as a raw material for PET. The technology will also co-produce, in a lower quantity, monopropylene glycol (MPG), which is used in applications ranging from unsaturated polyester resins (UPR), commonly used in construction materials, to cosmetic products.

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

5

Materials News

Holiday couture: going the full nine yards for sustainability Consumers are putting a premium on sustainability, signalling the fashion industry to adopt circular solutions to utilise the value of old garments and transform them into new goods, says Angelica Buan in this report.

T

is the season for gift giving – and creating more plastic waste! In the US alone, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), about 25% or 25 million tonnes of rubbish, consisting of packaging materials, ornaments, disposable cutleries, and more, is generated during Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. The Christmas season is not an exemption as shoppers resort to retail therapy with presents, ornaments and festivity essentials, with the likelihood to produce more waste from packaging materials alone.

The fashion industry adopts circular solutions to transform used garments into new products

E-commerce takes a front step The rise of e-commerce, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, has highlighted sustainability in the production of consumer goods and in the purchasing decisions of the consumers. A recent study by the IBM Institute for Business Value, pulsing over 12,500 consumers in October across Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the US, found that global consumers are mindful of sustainability of brands when shopping online.

In the UK, producer responsibility of retailer and brands is a key takeaway in a study conducted by waste management provider Biffa, which means that all eyes are on products that pitch fewer plastics or contain recycled plastics and recyclable materials.

The string purses may be tighter this year, given the pandemic, but funds saved from deferred travel plans and other activities on concerns over health, finances and safety, are likely to be channelled to buying holiday

6

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

gifts according to a report by Deloitte. It forecast an increase of 25% to 35% in 2020 holiday e-commerce sales, expected to generate between US$182 billion and US$196 billion, compared with the same period in 2019.

Wish list for recyclable apparel Apparel is a holiday shopping staple, and while sales this year may not be as glitzy as before the Covid-19, fashion brands continue to dish out new designs to cut through the competitive retail space. But simply introducing fashionable trends no longer works in keeping consumers’ loyalty to a brand. The fashion industry needs to change its current clothing system, which a 2017 report from the Ellen McArthur Foundation described as “linear”.

To produce garments that will only be used for a short period of time, huge amounts of non-renewable materials are consumed, including lots of water that is required in the production, the report said.

The industry also contributes to the huge amounts of fibre wastes: 87% of the total fibre input used for clothing is incinerated or disposed of in landfills.

Furthermore, the industry also accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions and it produces 20% of global wastewater, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) data. It said that a pair of jeans consumes 3,781 l of water, from the production of the cotton to the delivery of the final product to the store, producing carbon emissions of around 33.4 kg. What’s more, synthetic-fibre clothes when washed release 50 0 million tonnes/year of plastic microfibres into the oceans.

Of the increasing volumes of unused or discarded garments, less than 1% are recycled into new garments, the experts tipped off.

The industry is reportedly contributing to the huge amounts of fibre wastes that are either incinerated or disposed of in landfills

Materials News An iconic solution in recycling garments In response, the fashion industry has risen up to the occasion by developing and adopting circular solutions, such as garment to garment recycling and use of fibres from recycled plastics, to achieve the so-called new textile economy, where new materials that are recyclable and made for durable clothing are adopted to ultimately help in reducing pollution.

Swedish fast fashion company H&M, which in 2013 became the first fashion retailer to roll out a global garment collecting programme, has recently offered a garment-to-garment recycling system, Looop, for its customers in Sweden to transform unwanted garments into new fashion items for a fee.

Looop is created by the non-profit H&M Foundation, together with research partner HKRITA (The Hong Kong

H&M rolled out a garment-to-garment recycling system, Looop, to transform unwanted garments into new fashion items

Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel) and Hong Kong-based yarn spinner Novetex Textiles. The recycling service, which debuted in one of H&M's stores in Stockholm in October, gives customers an up-close view of the container-sized machine that dissembles and assembles old garments into new ones.

The process involves cleaning the garments, shredding them into fibres and spinning it into new yarn, which is then knitted into new fashion products. Some sustainably sourced virgin materials might be added during the process, H&M explained. Because the system uses no water and no chemicals, it has a significantly lower environmental impact than when producing garments from scratch.

By 2030, the company is set to making all its materials either recyclable or sourced in a more sustainable way.

Discarded bottles spun into new life Every minute, 1 million plastic drinking bottles are bought, and about the same amount will be discarded after use, according to UNEP. Recovering billions of waste bottles is a feat taken up

by US-headquartered synthetic yarns firm Unifi, which has set a goal of transforming 30 billion bottles by 2022.

It is on track to that goal as it has already transformed more than 20 billion PET bottles to date via its Repreve platform of recycled performance fibres. This milestone, according to Unifi, is equi valent to di verting from landfills 156 plastic bottles per each of the estimated 128 million US households and transforming these into Repreve fibres to make fabrics for apparel, upholstery, automotive and industrial applications. The firm says more than 50 0 global brand and textile partners are already adopting Repreve fibres.

Materials News Carbios adds that its process enables low-value waste to be recovered and to have a new life in more challenging applications, thus facilitating infinite recycling of PET plastics and textiles.

These major outcomes were achieved as part of the CE-PET (Circular Economy PET) research project, of which Carbios is the lead, alongside its partner TWB (Toulouse White Biotechnology). This project was financed by ADEME (French Environment and Energy Management Agency)

Unifi's Repreve recycled fibres platform has already transformed more than 20 billion PET bottles

Meanwhile, Thailand-headquartered integrated PET materials firm Indorama Ventures has been awarded a blue loan of US$300 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to undertake the recycling of 50 billion PET bottles/year globally by 2025. The funding will help Indorama increase its recycling capacity in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, India, and Brazil: countries which are grappling with mismanaged waste and serious plastic waste in the environment. A blue loan is an instrument whereby the funds raised are certified and tracked exclusively for projects that support a Blue Economy – i.e. sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth.

Indorama Ventures is aiming for a minimum of 750,000 tonnes/year of rPET globally by 2025.

Green bottles cut from the same cloth From turning used plastic bottles into textiles, now the process can be reversed and textiles can be recycled and transformed into plastic bottles.

French green chemistry company Carbios does its magic with a pioneering new enzymatic solution to reinvent the lifecycle of polyester textile polymers. It recently produced the fir st bottles containing 10 0% recycled purified terephthalic acid (rPTA) from textile waste that contains a high PET content. This result confirms the capacity of Carbios’ technology to recycle textile waste and opens up access to an additional waste stream of up to 42 million tonnes/year, worth over US$40 billion.

Currently, mechanical recycling technologies do not enable clothing waste to be recycled efficiently, Carbios explained. The few textiles that can be reused are downcycled into low quality applications such as padding, insulators or rags.

Carbios adds that its breakthrough technology enables upcycling of polyester textile fibres or even post-consumer coloured bottles to a high-quality grade of PET suitable for the production of clear bottles. The technology also opens up possibilities of producing such products like t-shirts from bottles or disposable food trays.

8

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

Carbios's enzymatic technology has produced the first bottles containing 100% purified rPTA from textile waste that contains a high PET content

Scrapping pollution with biobased textiles in the UK UK’s fashion industry is the third largest in Europe. A growth engine of the UK economy, the sector attracted a per capita spending of £980,000 million in 2018. The market is also forecast to grow by 6% to 2024; and despite forecast losses due to the pandemic, the online clothing market is to boost the industry with 27.4% estimated growth over the next five years, as projected in a 2019 Global Data report.

However, all is not coming up roses for the industry.

Sustainable men’s wear company Labfresh’s waste index study has cited UK as the fourth largest producer of textile waste in Europe. The country is ditching nearly 206,456 tonnes/year of textile waste.

Thus, researcher s from the University of York, alongside the Universities of Leeds, Manchester, Cranfield, Cambridge, and University College London, embarked on a £5.4 million project to provide mitigating solutions to the rising waste from textiles.

Working with the Royal College of Art, the researchers are utilising household waste, cropping residues and scrapping fabrics to develop new products that can be produced in the UK.

Materials News The project will be using a technology developed by a team at the University of York’s Department of Biology, which uses enzymes to deconstruct materials containing cellulose, such as natural and semi-synthetic fibres, crop residues, and solid waste products.

The enzymes help breakdown these materials into simple sugars, which can then be converted back into new cellulose by bacteria. This new cellulose is used to spin fibres that can be woven to produce high quality textiles to supply the UK’s fashion and clothing sector.

H&M is the first to adopt Eastman’s Naia Renew cellulosic fibre in its clothing

Researchers from UK universities are utilising household waste, crop residues and scrap fabrics to develop new products

The project group aims to reduce the carbon emissions and waste water from textile production, and to create a more secure domestic supply chain, they said.

An enzymatic solution to make sustainable fibres In t h e U S , s p ec ia lity ma te r ia ls fir m E a s tm an has developed a biobased fibre made with recycled plastic waste. The Eastman Naia Renew is a cellulosic yarn made from 60% certified wood fibres and 40% recycled waste plastics, such 60% renewable as carpet fibres and wood plup plastic pack aging.

H&M has been the first to use the Naia Re n e w i n i t s e c o 40% certified* luxe womenswear recycled waste plastics w i n t e r / f a l l collection.

Eastman Naia Renew is a cellulosic yarn made from 60% certified wood fibres and 40% recycled waste plastics

Biodegradable

According to Eastman, Naia Renew is fully traceable w i t h c e rt i f i e d b i o d e g r a d a b i l i t y t h a t c a p t u r e s t h e value of hard-to-recycle materials otherwise destined for landfills. It can be produced at scale to deliver sustainability, without compromise to the fashion world.

It is available as both a filament yarn and a staple fibre, Eastman furthered.

In 2019, Eastman began commercial-scale chemical recycling for a broad set of waste plastics, diverting them from the landfills. The Eastman Advanced Circular Recycling technologies process waste plastics that traditional mechanical recycling methods cannot, including PP and PS derived from a variety of sources like single-use plastics, textiles and carpeting.

Thus, purchasing and giving holiday gifts may have morphed differently in shape, form, and meaning this year, but sustainability will remain a driving force in sales for this year and in the near term.

Same quality fibre

Reduced carbon footprint Solution for hard-to-recycle mixed plasstics

Impactful production at scale

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

9

10

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

11

12

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

13

14

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

15

Year-end Summary

2020: trouble in paradise for major industry sectors Companies are rewriting their growth stories – with new perspectives of connecting directly to their customers, as well as collaborating with industry peers, and quickly responding to changes, says Angelica Buan in this report.

SML says it was able to repurpose its production, at a record time, for the production of face shields

16

Pandemic blues – economies tumble The struggle is real for economies that succumbed to the hydra of Covid-19. The global economy is projected to potentially incur a US$1 trillion-loss due to the pandemic, aggravated by supply chain disruptions from China and a drastic drop in oil prices, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Though China, the world’s factory, has been forecast to witness a 0.1% drop in GDP in 2020, with further reduction of 0.4% in annual growth due to its trade tiff with the US, its economy has gradually recovered to be the world’s largest, overtaking the US, according to the IMF’s World Economic Output 2020 report.

Over and above, the pandemic has marked an unprecedented disruption across industries globally. It has been a tough year: with industries hit by low to zero sales and demand, streamlined workforce, lockdowns and mobility restrictions.

The airline industry, for example, has seen massive layoffs as fleets had been grounded for months on end; the automotive sector, which had already been in a slump, saw declining demand for light vehicles and passenger vehicles from China, Europe, the ASEAN and the US. Medical and packaging sectors fly high Contrariwise, the medical and packaging sectors have grown this year, which provided a positive outlook for machine manufacturers catering to the mentioned sectors.

The medical sector witnessed a windfall with demand shooting up for personal protective equipment (PPE) and telemedicine technologies.

The rising Covid-19 cases and risks of infections accelerated the demand for PPEs. The World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as several governments, distributed PPEs to countries that indicated rising counts of infected patients. At the onset, an estimated 89 million medical masks/ month; 76 million gloves and 1.6 million/month of goggles were required for the Covid-19 response, according to WHO. WHO also urged industries and governments to increase their production of PPEs by 40% to meet rising global demand. But even then, PPE manufacturers, going beyond their maximum capacities already, are still short of fulfilling the continuous demand that is increasing day by day.

Machine makers rise up to the challenge of meeting PPE shortages Some machine makers took the bull by the horns to meet the demand for PPEs by repurposing their production lines.

One such machinery firm SML started industrial production of PET sheet, the main component in plastic face shields, at its headquarters in Redlham, Austria. Production is taking place on a line for calendered sheets, with the extrusion line producing enough material for up to 10,000 face shields/ hour. The sheets are processed into face shields by compatriot extrusion machine supplier Kiefel in Freilassing, Bavaria. Two types of face shields are produced - based on 0.3 mm and 0.15 mm thin PET sheet, respectively. The PET sheet can be recycled 100%, for example, along with PET bottles and other PET products.

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

Advertorial

KRAIBURG TPE adheres to China's GB (GuoBiao) foodcontact material safety standard

K

RAIBURG TPE, a global manufacturer of a wide range of thermoplastic elastomers products and custom solutions to multiple industries, underscores food-contact material safety, in line with China’s GB Standards (中国国标).

Contamination against hazardous substances present in food-contact materials, especially used in packaging and other food-contact finished products and equipment, is a major contention for regulatory bodies worldwide.

Regulations on food-contact materials are becoming more stringent as new findings emerge pertaining to the potential transferring or leaching of chemicals into the end product.

Currently, chemicals that are introduced or are added in food-contact materials include additives such as perfluoroalkoxy alkanes (PFAs), plasticizers and phthalates. These may cause health risks, ranging from oncological conditions, autoimmune diseases, hormone disruptions to neurological impairment to end-users.

to the GB standards for food regulations, including the GB4806:2016.

In line with the extensive demand of products approved in accordance to the GB standards, KRAIBURG TPE has extended its expertise like customizing TPE solutions and recommending suitable TPE compound for the food-contact applications, in supporting customers in complying the China GB standards (中国国标).

Besides the GB standards, KRAIBURG TPE’s compounds comply with the global standards for food regulations such as the EU Directive 10/2011, the EN71/3 European safety standard for toys, as well as the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 21.

KRAIBURG TPE’s food-contact TPEs can be used in consumer food-contact applications such as bowl covers, ice trays, food container covers, wine cork gaskets, cutlery handles and grips.

China’s GB standards (中国国标) for food-contact materials China has enforced product safety laws and policies that are continually updated, to heed the public’s rising concerns on product safety.

The GB standards are the Chinese national standards issued by the Standardization Administration of China (SAC), which is the Chinese National Committee for ISO and IEC. The GB standards is to ensure in making food-contact materials safe for applications in food containers, food packaging, kitchenware, utensils, equipments and accessories, amid rising public concerns on product safety.

KRAIBURG TPE, a global manufacturer of a wide range of thermoplastic elastomers products and custom solutions to multiple industries, is committed to meeting global safety standards for food-contact materials.

The company is proud to announce that its specific TPE compounds come with the Declaration of Compliance (DoC) to meet China’s GB standards (中国国标).

Service package to meet needs KRAIBURG TPE has a service package designed to provide support throughout the entire process: from technical expertise on customized compound modification to individual advisory from its competent and market specific experts, as well as worldwide on-site representation.

Thus, the company’s customer service support allows for a worry-free sales and service process.

In compliance with GB standards As a global TPE manufacturer, KRAIBURG TPE serves as an intermediate materials manufacturer in the supply chain and adheres NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

17

Year-end Summary The question as to whether Arburg will be producing masks for the market as an injection moulding company in future is clearly answered in the negative, with the company saying it does not want to earn money with the production of masks, “but rather wanted to show how such high-quality products can be developed quickly and manufactured economically in series production."

Reifenhäuser converted a pilot line for protective garments

German extrusion line maker Reifenhäuser, in March, temporarily produced meltblown to make about 1 million face masks/day at its technology centre. It also converted another pilot line for production of protective film for the manufacture of medical coveralls for use in hospitals. The same line type was also capable of producing hygienic film for use in diapers, besides certified medical protective film. Ultra Stretch technology can also be used in other advanced applications, such as recyclable All-PE film (PET replacement). The production unit can therefore be used flexibly to respond to a wide variety of market demands outside of an emergency or crisis, Reifenhäuser said.

Indian machinery maker Rajoo Engineers, meanwhile, built a fully automated N95 mask making machine capable of producing 1 mask every 2 seconds, or 1,800 masks/hour. The automation ensures that the masks are hygienic and produced with minimum wastage as well as minimal human intervention, said the blown film and sheet extrusion line machine maker.

The Rajkot-based company offers either the entire fabricto-mask solution or just the mask making machine, depending on the needs of the processor.

Rajoo built an automated N95 mask making machine capable of producing 1,800 masks/hour

German machine maker Arburg has also been active during the pandemic. An example is the multifunctional face mask, which was developed in collaboration with partners and made ready for series production in only 41 days. In May, it started production of face masks made from LSR and PP, for everyday use, followed by the design and manufacture of a supplementary disposable filter that can be easily attached to the mask opening. Its partners in the project were Sigma Engineering (LSR component and mould simulation), Polar-Form (LSR mould), Foboha and Wilhelm Weber (thermoplastic moulds), Ewikon (cold runner), Elmet (LSR dosing unit), Männer and Günter (hot runner technology), Barth Mechanik (gripper), Wacker and Borealis (material), Karl Küfner (filter design), Herrmann Ultraschall (welding technology) and Packmat (packaging technology).

18

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

Arburg’s complete face mask consists of the LSR mask, the holder and the filter (from right to left): all components were injectionmoulded on Allrounders at Arburg’s facility in Lossburg

Order backlogs create good vibes for some Meanwhile, all was not lost for many companies that had glimmers of hope in 2020, and are hoping for a windfall in 2021, especially since recovery rates from the pandemic are rising and with the imminent availability of vaccines.

For Austria-headquartered Wittmann Group, which encompasses injection moulding machine maker Wittman Battenfeld and Wittmann (auxiliary equipment), 2021 could offer an increase in turnover, due to “good order backlog”, said Managing Director Michael Wittmann. However, Wittmann Group’s Managing Director Michael he averred that there is Wittmann said the firm has “uncertainty behind any seen strong recovery in the forecast because of the health second quarter of 2020 situation”. The company’s turnover dropped by 17% to EUR310 million, compared to the previous year.

However, Wittmann relayed that the company’s order income for 2020 “has seen strong recovery in the second quarter with an incredible pick-up in business.”

One of Wittmann Group’s latest offerings is the Ingrinder, an energy-efficient injection moulding system for recycling plastic waste, and which runs with coldrunner technology moulds. It consists of a sprue picker, granulator and vacuum conveyor and has been developed for the 110-tonne EcoPower machine and the 90-tonne SmartPower series.

Year-end Summary According to Japanese machine manufacturer Sumitomo (SHI) Demag’s CEO Gerd Liebig, from JanuaryAugust 2020 – during the active months of the downturn – its machine orders increased by 24% to EUR183 million, owing to the increased demand in medical technology, as well as in electronics, and packaging sectors.

The packaging industry has augmented orders for SHI’s all-electric machines, especially for applications with low and medium injection speeds, with its market share having significantly increased to 30%. Incoming orders and sales are also anticipated to ring up incomes to EUR275 million and EUR250 million, respectively, for the fiscal year 2020, Liebig said, adding that Europe accounted for 50% of all small and medium-sized machines.

Stackteck was able to produce PPE plastic components such as the headband piece for face shields

Canadian tool maker StackTeck Systems, likewise, attested to demands for high volume injection moulds for medical applications this year. StackTeck offers solutions for medical-disposable items, labware, testing and diagnostic plastic components. Jordan Robertson, VP Business Development & Marketing, commented that enquiries poured in for high volume medical applications during the pandemic, but with challenging lead time requirements.

Machine manufacturers: investments to secure competitiveness Pandemic or not, business was as usual for a number of firms, which turned the crisis to their advantage by investing in facility expansions and ramping up productivity and competitiveness.

Germany-based PU machine supplier Hennecke invested EUR2 million in a structural transformation

Despite the Covid-19 crisis, Hennecke made one of its single largest investment in its standardised metering machine production this year

of its standardised metering machine production at its parent facility in Germany. The new Hennecke Production System (HPS), launched in July, along with the associated reorganisation of the metering machine production at the Sankt Augustin site, is aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the entire company group. Essential improvements have also been made to the production layout, with all the individual measures expected completion for the final quarter of 2020.

Taiwanese machine maker Fu Chun Shin (FCS), in September, broke ground for a new production base in Hangzhou Bay New District, Ningbo, China. It is FCS’s fifth production base worldwide for injection moulding machines, after the Indian plant. With an investment of US$40 million, the construction of the 2,000 special injection machines/year-output plant is expected to be completed in 2022, and will officially start up in January 2023.

FCS recently broke ground on its new factory in China

Meanwhile, Austrian machine maker Engel, which reported a decline in sales of nearly 20% for the 2019-2020 fiscal year ended March, is pushing through with its investments plans.

The company has EUR1.3 billion turnover worldwide and has over EUR500 million investment volumes (FY2018/20).

According to CEO Stefan Engleder, Engel’s investments are ongoing.

It is also completing its St Valentin technology centre and Engleder Engel’s CEO Stefan Engleder added that the company says the company’s investments has more investments are ongoing plans it is pursuing.

Elsewhere, German blow moulding machine maker Kautex Maschinenbau that has been operating a production plant for the manufacture of extrusion blow moulding machines in the southern Chinese city of Shunde for 25 years, also recently held an anniversary celebration and to commemorate the increase in manufacturing capacity.

A new extended warehouse for spare parts was built in conjunction with the expansion.

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

19

Year-end Summary Automotive makers: shifting gears to medical devices The PPE market is forecast to grow to US$7.8 billion in 2020 from almost US$6 billion in 2019 at a CAGR of 30.8%, according to a report from The Business Research Company. The surge in demand for PPEs in and out of hospital settings presented a huge demand-supply gap, which according to the research is expected to stabilise and reach US$11.45 billion in 2023, at a CAGR of 13.5%.

An unlikely support to augment the supply for PPEs came from automotive makers, which had during the pandemic suffered setbacks from reduced workforce and productivity, demand contraction, and financial uncertainties. They saw the opportunity to augment the PPE supply shortage as also providing opportunity for growth. A number of automotive makers converted their plants for PPE production, and at the height of a PPE supply crisis, were reportedly working double time, churning out face shields and masks from their factories.

India, the fourth largest automotive producer in the world, dealt with PPE shortages whereby medical front liners resorted to using raincoats, helmets with sun-visors and other plastic materials as substitutes for N95 masks or protective gowns.

Skoda in India produced 12,000 reusable face shields, in its Covid-19 fight

Škoda Auto Volkswagen India Private Limited (ŠAVWIPL), a merger of the three Indian subsidiaries of the Volkswagen Group India – Volkswagen India, Volkswagen Group Sales India and Škoda Auto India, started producing reusable face shields at its Chakan factory. The transparent, sterilisable, and lightweight face shields would protect the user from body fluids and can be worn with masks.

Moreover, the company chipped in US$140,000 to set up a Covid-19 dedicated 1,100-bed facility in Sassoon General Hospital in Pune; as well as provide 35,000 units of sanitisers to hospitals in this Marahastra city.

In Europe, which at press time is experiencing a second wave of infections, supply of PPEs became so scarce that Spanish car maker and Volkswagen Group company, Seat, started producing automated ventilators. OxyGEN, a free hardware designed by Protofy.xyz, was manufactured at Seat’s Spanish plant, with a definitive model produced at a record speed of one week. For the project, Seat had to transform its assembly line to make the ventilators.

Italy’s Automobili Lamborghini, a manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant’Agata Bolognese, converted portions of its production plant to produce surgical masks and protective medical shields for the Sant’Orsola-Malpighi Hospital in Bologna.

20

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

Meanwhile, US car major Ford Motor Company and General Electric (GE) Healthcare partnered to produce in Michigan a third-party ventilator with design from Airon Corp.

Ford also collaborated with adhesives producer 3M for the production of a portable tool battery pack-powered PAPR with repurposed fans from the Ford F-150 trucks’ cooled seats for airflow and the 3M HEPA air filters to filter airborne contaminants.

Another US major GM, meanwhile, also worked with Washington-based medical device company Ventec Life Systems to produce VOCSN critical care ventilators, which combines an oxygen concentrator, cough assist, suction and nebuliser into a single portable device.

Packaging: challenge to remain sustainable The lockdowns created a wide window of opportunity for the home delivery sector. The huge volumes and demand for fast delivery products also required more for packaging to ensure the integrity of the goods during handling and upon reaching the consumer.

Petrochemicals firm Sabic has developed a packaging solution with stronger puncture and impact resistance, and higher sealing integrity by introducing the Sabic Cohere polyolefin plastomers (POP), with a blend of LLDPE, LDPE and Sabic metallocene LLDPE resins for the core and outer layers, in the multi-layer packaging film structures.

Two Vietnamese companies, Linh Khang and Tan Phong Packaging, collaborated with Sabic for the application of the POP solution in their packaging products.

A multilayer vacuum packaging film was developed to meet Linh Khang’s requirement of protecting bananas against the rigours of transportation and handling while Tan Phong Packaging collaborated with Sabic to develop a multilayer film for producing giant freshwater storage bags.

Along the same note, the safety and convenience of single-use and flexible plastic packaging have been commended. Yet, awareness to its environmental impact has always hovered around their increased use.

ExxonMobil’s collaboration with India’s Shrinath and Syntegon is on this point. The US materials firm developed a recyclable full PE laminated solution to replace non-recyclable or non-energy recoverable or multilayer plastics, which are due to be phased out as part of India’s sustainability policy of reducing plastics use by 2022. According to ExxonMobil, full PE laminate solutions are recyclable in communities where programmes and facilities to collect and recycle plastic films exist.

Chemicals: weighing on issues and expectations A major shakedown also befell on the oil and energy sectors. In the early stages of the lockdowns, early in the year, oil producers bemoaned the slow demand, which resulted in excess output. In light of the supply shock, the Middle East-dominated producer group OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) dramatically lowered its forecast for global oil demand growth to 0.99 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2020, down by 0.23 million bpd from last year. This also spurred the call to cut oil production.

Year-end Summary Due to the weakened demand from China that accounted for half of world oil demand growth in 2019, OPEC sought to cut oil production to shore up prices. In May, oil production was slashed to 9.7 million bpd; and

by August, was slightly curbed to 7.7 million bpd at a hint of recovery. The plan is to continue snipping production to 5.5 million bpd in January 2021 – a scheme that is not expected to push through amid the continuing soft demand for oil.

Meanwhile, research firm ICIS reported that the crisis may accelerate key macro trends. According to Ian Bremmer, President of research and consulting firm Eurasia Group, these are: income inequality; displacement of labour from automation, technology, immigration and free trade; wars displacing investment in infrastructure, healthcare and education; and increasing polarisation via social media. These microtrends may eventually create a “volatile backdrop” for chemical companies to navigate the road to recovery in the post-Covid era.

For auxiliary equipment specialist Movacolor, it opened its online showroom for customers to get an up-close appraisal, although virtually, of its technologies. Visitors can actually “walk around” in the showroom having a detailed look at the systems of their interest, Movacolor explained. This enables the customers to connect directly to a specialist for a live tour via chat, Teams or Skype.

Remote possibilities: going digital The year did have a learning curve: no face-to-face meetings with customers that railroaded sales and aftersales support for many companies. Nevertheless, this adversity has opened doors to innovating the way that support is provided, sales are pitched and deals are closed – all by going digital.

German machinery maker Arburg tapped on the potential of digitalisation with its arburgXworld. With the programme, Arburg said that it has collected all of its digital products and services. Besides “smarter” machine technology and innovative solutions in the service area, the central customer portal arburgXworld, with its numerous apps, is given a key position. There are now four packages to that end, which contain various apps and configuration levels. The customer portal makes work easier all along the value chain of injection moulding. Employees from purchasing, work preparation, and maintenance profit the same as production managers, machine setters, and machine operators.

The digital services of the customer portal arburgXworld include the Apps Shop, SelfService, and ServiceCenter. Customers can use the “Configuration” app to configure and order the Allrounder 270 S online; and the Arburg Remote Service (ARS) facilitates timesaving online support.

Due to Covid-19 mobility restrictions, Arburg has also created the option for accepting machines remotely.

Arburg’s sales experts go through the requirement specifications with the customer using an iPad. The customer sees exactly what’s shown on the iPad. This allows all requirements to be checked through a visual approval test. In conclusion, the customer receives a written record along with image documentation before the customer’s Allrounder is finally put into operation on site. This is a time and cost-efficient alternative and an option for the future, although it cannot fully replace personal contact and an on-site visit, Arburg stated.

Relatedly, Movacolor offers plastics producers a shot at sustainability and cost-effective production with dedicated dosing systems for specific regrind applications, such as the MCTwin, which is suitable for closed loop regrind addition and the MCHigh Output 2500R for the processing of lowdensity regrinds like PET flakes. These regrind dosing systems minimise change over time and increase the efficiency of the production line while feeding regrind in a controllable and fluent way.

Movacolor's online showroom enables visitors to virtually tour the showroom for a detailed look at the systems of their interest

Conclusion – adapting to meet future challenges Meanwhile, although the outlook seems uncertain, JEC Group, the organiser of the JEC composites show surveyed 1,500 international respondents in May and October 2020 to evaluate the impact of Covid-19 on their companies.

It adds that many companies are looking forward to the future with much optimism, with 64% of composites companies operating at 76%-99% of their capacity showing a positive sign of recovery post-Covid-19. Only 25% express concerns regarding innovation and R&D. The survey also revealed that 50% of the respondents changed materials suppliers against the logistics issues and many changed their foreign providers to local ones to avoid supply chain delays, and 70% plan to remain on the same path in the future.

Also, 25% of the companies have switched their production to manufacture healthcare production, with 30% to continue in the long run. The survey also found that 50% of respondents considered entering a new activity sector, with sustainability and renewable energies being main ones.

And as companies struggle with revenues, respondents said the top three innovation drivers are reducing cost, competition concerns, and new customers' needs.

Thus, the global crisis may be far from over but swerving up to the promise of economic recovery by 2021 onwards, industries remain vigilant to changes that loom ahead and the ways to respond to these changes quickly, as key to surviving the post-pandemic years.

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

21

Packaging

Revolutionising the packaging sector Graphene-biopolymer to reduce waste While biodegradable plastics currently exist, they rely on commercial composting, which uses energy to heat the compost, as well as presenting other logistical challenges.

In addition, some bioplastics produce methane gas when they decompose, a compound with a global warming potential 25 times that of CO2.

Thus, UK biotech company Toraphene is preparing to unveil what it says is the world's first truly biodegradable, compostable and commercially viable alternative to plastic packaging. The company has developed a new material, also called Toraphene, that uses biopolymers that compost naturally and biodegrade, as well produce CO2 along with mulch that can be used to fortify topsoil.

Toraphene is to launch a graphene-based biopolymer for a biodegradable, compostable and commercially viable alternative to plastic packaging

The biopolymers are combined with graphene, which is derived from carbon and is stronger than diamond at an atomic level.

“Amidst a climate crisis, plastic waste is known to be a huge, global problem and many plastic alternatives now exist, so why don’t we see them everywhere?” asks Gaute Juliussen, CEO/Founder of Toraphene. “It’s because they need specific manmade conditions to biodegrade, and many degrade into microplastics, which contaminate our oceans and food chain for centuries”.

Such bioplastics have “effectively been ‘greenwashed’ and mis-sold to environmentally responsible consumers and companies,” continues Juliussen. “They also tear easily, shorten the shelf-life of the contents they contain and cannot be produced economically at scale”.

Due to the addition of graphene, Toraphene has been shown to be stronger, thinner, and less permeable than alternatives, improving food safety and shelf-life.

This presents the first commercially viable alternative to plastics.

22

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

An entrepreneur, venture capitalist and former Associate Professor of Business, Juliussen founded Toraphene in 2018 with the initial aim of creating a green alternative to carrier bags and food and drink containers.

Such plastics make up 23% of marine waste.

Ahead of the launch of Toraphene, which is patented in the UK, EU, and the US, Juliussen is launching an equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube, encouraging anyone who cares for the environment to be part of the Toraphene journey.

Toraphene is renting production equipment from plastic bag manufacturers and plugging directly into existing supply chains. The company is already in talks with major consumer brands, retailers and food packaging suppliers.

Ultimately, Toraphene aims to render plastic packaging obsolete and disrupt the $4 trillion plastics industry.

Over 50% virgin plastics substituted in shrink film Broadening the market potential of plastic recyclates and thereby furthering the uptake of recycled content across Europe is recycling company APK AG’s core objective. The German firm has tested the performance of its Newcycling LDPE recyclates in shrink films during several projects undertaken over the course of this past year. Primary test results showed that the recyclates were able to deliver on the key functional issue of shrinkage. Film thickness was able to be maintained at the same level as with virgin plastics. Formulation of the shrink films and extrusion parameters remained close to the virgin feedstock version.

Shrink film produced with Mersalen LDPE recyclate

Packaging Collation shrink film is a demanding packaging application – for virgin polymers and all the more so for recycled materials. It needs to have a specific toughness, holding force, and shrink performance for it to guarantee package integrity as well as the necessary stability for storage and transport. Process parameters should remain constant when switching from virgin to recycled feedstock.

Beyond this, as the film may be used as secondary packaging for bundling several products, making it the first thing the consumer sees, optics need to be of a highenough quality.

During the projects that focused on multi-layer collation shrink films, ambitious substitution rates for virgin feedstock, ranging from 30% to 100%, were tested.

The 30%-55% scenarios produced impressive results: the shrink film was nearly indistinguishable from that made of virgin material. Substituting virgin plastics for these amounts of secondary raw materials would already allow for a decisive reduction in emissions. Newcycling LDPE recyclates produce nearly 50% fewer emissions than virgin LDPE types.

APK says its Newcycling dissolution recycling process can easily separate different polymers in multilayer plastic packaging – up to now, deemed non-recyclable – and transforms the target polymer into re-granulates with close to virgin properties.

Dissolution recycling is an advanced physical recycling technology. Building on a mechanical pre-treatment step, it adds a solvent-based process step, during which the target polymer is separated and purification of contaminants, such as various additives or organic residues, also takes place. APK’s recycled LDPE, used during the shrink film tests, is marketed under the Mersalen brand. It is derived from complex PE/PA multilayer film waste.

Increasing recycling quotas, potential mandatory use of recycled plastics in products across the EU market and a recently published Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability pushing strongly for a toxic-free environment: the European Commission has piled up a number of demanding challenges to the plastics and packaging value chains. However, bridging the gap between increased use of recycled plastics and attainment of the performance required for specific packaging applications can be facilitated by driving innovation in both design and technology.

APK’s Newcycling process generates plastic recyclates of close to virgin quality, which are suitable to be used in cosmetic packaging.

PET tray-to-tray recycling in one step If a circular economy is to be realised, it will be necessary to consistently recycle post-consumer thermoformed PET trays back into PET trays. Currently, extensive use is made of rPET from bottles in the manufacture of PET trays but this supply of feedstock will continue to decrease. As part of the circular economy, PET bottle flake is increasingly recycled into new bottles.

The recycling of regrind from post-consumer PET trays to new sheet for PET trays presents challenges for the recycling process, such as the intrinsic viscosity of the regrind from PET trays is too low to permit direct recycling on a conventional sheet extrusion line. It is also unavoidable that tray regrind will be cross-contaminated with other polymers, as it is difficult to completely exclude other polymers, especially due to co-extruded or laminated layers.

Thus, for this demanding process of tray-to-tray recycling, machine maker Gneuss has developed the MRSjump extruder, which combines the decontamination performance of the MRS degassing extruder with a viscosity boost.

Furthermore, Gneuss says the extrusion process does not necessitate any pre or post-treatment of the input material, such as crystallisation or pre-drying of the recycled material or an IV boost in a solid state polycondensation (SSP).

It also adds that the high degassing efficiency of the extruder makes it possible to comply with EFSA and FDA limits without time and cost-intensive upstream or downstream material treatment.

Other benefits are the simple set-up, compact design and the ability to process a wide range of materials, from regrind from mono and multi-layer trays to material combinations that would stick together in a conventional thermal pre-treatment process (e.g. sheet regrind from PET/PE, GAG, certain copolymers).

Thanks also to the short process chain, the melt remains within a narrow, defined residence time spectrum.

The thermal and mechanical stress on the material is kept low, allowing for mechanical and optical sheet properties.

Thus, recycling and decontamination are for the first time made possible with the MRSjump Extruder, within one single extrusion step, without upstream or downstream material treatment steps. This opens up new possibilities for the recycling of tray regrind.

Gneuss has introduced its MRSjump recycling extruder, a one-step extrusion process for PET tray-to-tray recycling

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

23

Compounding/Extrusion Machinery

24

Maag caters to DSM’s expansion in strand pelletising When Dutch materials firm DSM initiated an extensive modernisation and expansion of its compounding plant in Evansville (Indiana, US), it relied on its 40-year partnership with Maag Group for the supply of several automatic strand pelletising lines (Jet Stream Granulation System – JSG).

Compared to normal strand systems, the automatic JSG systems are specialised from the die head, allowing for the pelletising of highly filled compounding products as well as high quality recycling applications.

“It is mostly used to process high-priced polymers. Due to the high level of automation, strand breaks are immediately fed back into the pelletiser during production,” said Harald Zang, General Manager Sales.

“This avoids waste, increases the productivity of the machine and thus generates increased turnover and profit.”

Depending on the customer needs, Maag says it can set up different features and process parameters of the Jet Stream Systems and react on certain material properties and throughput ranges.

APK relies on Coperion ZSK extruder technology for its recycling process The amount of plastic waste produced daily is one of the greatest problems of modern times. Worldwide, nearly 80 million tonnes/year of plastic packaging waste accrues. Of this amount, currently only about 10% of the resources used are recovered by recycling, with 90% of it incinerated, dumped into landfills, or littered into the environment. The necessity of a circular plastic economy has never been greater.

Thus, German firm APK AG developed the solventbased plastic recycling process Newcycling to recycle multi-polymer and multi-layer plastic packaging, that previously could not be recycled, can now be separated and processed into homogeneous regrind. The firm is using Coperion’s ZSK twin-screw extruders.

The solvent-based process enables clean and single-origin PA and PE pellets with virgin-near material character to be extracted from complex PA/PE multi-layer films. These recyclates can be reused in high-quality products up to the original application. Downcycling can thus be reduced and closed-loop recycling becomes possible.

In Newcycling at APK’s Merseburg location, PA/ PE multi-layer film is first mechanically pre-treated, undergoing among other things shredding and classification.

Next, the PE layer is dissolved and liquefied in a solvent bath, leading to separation of the polymers and polymer layers. The undissolved PA is then separated from the dissolved PE using conventional solid-liquid separation technology and the polymers are further processed in separate material streams.

The PA is introduced into a Coperion ZSK twin screw extruder where it passes through various process sections and is processed into a high-quality PA melt using very high dispersion performance and intensive devolatilisation. Finally, it is pelletised into first-class PA recyclates.

Following pre-evaporation, the PE is likewise introduced into a ZSK twin screw extruder together with the solvent. There, intensive devolatilisation of the liquid takes place, precisely calibrated for this application to produce first-class results even when PE/solvent ratios fluctuate. The solvent is completely volatilised and added back into the Newcycling process in a closed loop. PE remains in the form of a homogeneous, high-quality melt that is then pelletised. The PE recyclate possesses quality similar to that of virgin product.

APK says Newcycling recyclates exhibit on average 66% fewer emissions than virgin material of a given plastic and are suited for a wide range of applications such as cosmetics packaging.

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

Maag supplied several automatic JSG strand pelletising lines

Coperion’s ZSK extruder is used in the recycling technology process from APK

Compounding/Extrusion Machinery Tubi USA’s modular plants for on-site production of HDPE pipe Tubi USA Inc. has launched a patented Mobile Modular Extrusion system that is said to reduce logistics, installation, and handling costs for the manufacture and installation of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe for the mining, oil and gas, irrigation, and municipal water and wastewater industries.

The modularised production units operate at Tubi’s sites or each client’s site, directly reducing the cost of pipe transportation and ensuring a certainty of supply at each plant for exclusive client use or for other customers. These mobile extrusion plants can be packed onto flatbed trucks and hauled to project sites in 72 hours to manufacture HDPE pipe for a wide range of infrastructure projects. In the current pandemic, Tubi can move its modular plants where needed and operate at 100% capacity compared to traditional pipe manufacturers in permanent facilities who may face capacity limitations in a down market.

“Our game-changing modular technologies address the needs of an ever-increasing and farspanning global community,” said Marcello Russo, Tubi CEO. “With our geographies widening, there is a real demand to utilise more efficient, flexible and sustainable methods of operation.” The new technology eliminates the risk of handling large pipe lengths while delivering sustainability advantages by reducing truck traffic. The mobile factories can be moved to strategic locations, thus providing increased flexibility compared to conventional brick-and-mortar plants.

Public road transportation is currently seen as the only viable way of delivering pipe, rendering the extrusion of long length pipe impossible, according to the company. Tubi’s modular extrusion plant offers unprecedented lengths of weld-free pipe produced directly on-site, reducing up to 95% of conventional weld joints. The plant can extrude 4 to 26-in pipe and has capability up to 48” in lengths of 500 ft or more. Each modular extrusion factory has 9,000 tonnes/year of capacity.

Tubi adds that it utilises inline x-ray and centre wave technology processes along with the pipe standard requirements to yield high-quality HDPE pipe with a long service life and proven durability.

Tubi has established a new mobile manufacturing site in Bartow, Fla. with two plants that are now both fully commissioned and operational. The company won a large project and then leased space from its customer, Mosaic Co., which is the largest fertiliser producer in the world. Mosaic is using Tubi pipe for processing wastewater from phosphate mining. Tubi is producing the pipe in 500-ft lengths.

The two new Florida plants have significant technological upgrades with production lines capable of the high production rates. Previously, the Florida HDPE pressure pipe markets were geographically isolated from HDPE pipe manufacturing plants. The direct access to the new Tubi plants in central Florida reduces freight and installation costs, improves safety, reduces carbon emissions, and creates local jobs.

Tubi also currently operates a mobile extrusion plant in Odessa, Texas, with plans to move a fourth new mobile extrusion plant to Tucson, Arizona, to serve the Southwest mining industry.

In New Zealand, Tubi’s mobile manufacturing unit produced 105 miles of HDPE pipe for irrigation of 50,000 acres of farmland.

The logistics of delivering pipe in this rural area were significantly improved. The irrigation pipe was produced on-site in 100-m lengths. IPLEX NZ, an existing pipe producer in New Zealand, bought the plant from Tubi and operates it under license.

Tubi has launched modular extrusion plants for on-site production of HDPE pipe NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

25

Injection Moulding Asia Automotive

From zero to hero: automakers go carbon neutral The automotive industry is driving towards

One of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the transport sector will, by 2035, become the single largest GHG emitter that will account for 46% of global emissions, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). By 2050, ADB forecasts the sector to contribute 80% of emissions. Of the regions, Asia is estimated to accrue 31% of the total carbon emissions from transport by 2035.

the net-zero direction with electric vehicles and low carbon emissions production facilities, says Angelica Buan in this report.

Electric vehicles: boon or bane?

The sector, thus, is pushing for adoption of electric cars as a fix for reducing carbon emissions. Compared to regular cars, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and all-electric vehicles (EVs) produce lower tailpipe emissions.

But are EVs any better for the environment?

A study nixes cynics that say EVs could actually raise carbon emission levels, from production and electrification. In countries with inadequate clean energy grids, or those that rely on fossil fuels like coal to produce energy, adopting EVs might become pointless.

However, utilisation of renewable energy is anticipated to increase more in the coming years, and this bodes well for the EV segment.

A study, carried out by the Universities of Exeter, Nijmegen and Cambridge, finds that EVs generally help reduce carbon emissions and therefore are better for the climate than petrol-run vehicles in 95% (or 53 regions) of the world.

It said that average lifetime emissions from EVs are 70% lower than petrol cars in countries such as France and Sweden that rely on renewables and nuclear for their electricity, and around 30% lower in the UK. Greater adoption for clean energy in the years to come would make even inefficient EVs more beneficial for the climate than new petrol cars. By 2050, every other car on the street could be electric. This would reduce global carbon emissions by up to 1.5 gigatonnes/year, the study adds.

Transport sector a major contributor of emissions Climate change has been directly and indirectly linked to the emergence of the coronavirus, and for experts, it is a moot point for now. However, one thing is clear: climate change is an epidemic that has no vaccine or an instant cure. It can take time to heal the environment from the toxicity created over generations of neglect. It requires conscious effort and action, especially from industries that contribute to the scale it is now.

EV growth inimitable The EV market is promising and it has shown a growing following even during the lockdowns where sales are made online. According to a McKinsey report, demand for EVs has remained stable during the pandemic, compared with demand for other vehicles. EV sales in China, Europe and the US have dropped but the market share for EVs has increased.

The transport sector is purported to become the single largest greenhouse gas emitter by 2035, to account for nearly half of global emissions

1 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

www.injectionmouldingasia.com

Injection Moulding Asia Automotive

In 2019, EVs accounted for 2.5% of the global light-vehicle market and though in the pandemic the automotive market has suffered, by 2021, there might be a surprising turnaround for the industry with a projection of double-digit growth.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, car sales will rise by 15% by 2021. EV sales, meanwhile, will grow from 2.5 million to 3.4 million next year.

As the China EV market is anticipated to contract, the European EV market might expand from 2021 and beyond, favoured by strict fleetwide emission regulation: as by 2021, the carbon emission target is 95 g of CO2/km .

its Mizushima plant in Okayama Prefecture to produce jointly with Nissan Motors new electric Kei-cars this year. This is in line with its aims for 40% reduction in CO2 emissions from its new cars and raising the proportion of EVs in its total sales to 50% by 2030.

Over in South Korea, the government’s “Green New Deal” details its ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Aside from investing on smart grids and renewable energy, the deal also eyes increasing adoption rates for EVs by 2025 to 1.13 million EVs and 200,000 hydrogen-powered fuel-cell EVs.

The year for Asian EVs In Japan, electric and hybrid vehicles are heavily promoted, especially since it has a 2050 target to becoming carbon neutral. Midway that ambition, it is banning sales of new combustion engine cars by mid-2030. The government is reportedly doubling the subsidy for purchasing EVs from ¥400,000 to ¥800,000 per vehicle. For plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles, subsidies remained at ¥200,000 and ¥2.25 million, respectively.

The EV market is ripe with investments to develop and launch new models. Japanese car maker Mitsubishi Motors (MMC) has a large scale investment of ¥8 billion in the works at

Hyundai’s E-GMP’s compact new PE system consists of a powerful motor, EV transmission and inverter, which reportedly raises the motor’s maximum speed by up to 70% compared to existing motors

In the same token, H y u n d a i Motor Group has unveiled its new Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), a dedicated battery electric vehicle (BEV) platform that will serve as the core technology for Hyundai’s next-generation BEV line-up.

The E-GMP’s compact new power electric (PE) system consists of a powerful motor, EV transmission and inverter, which reportedly raises the motor’s maximum speed by up to 70% compared to existing motors.

All vehicles developed with the E-GMP platform use a standardised single type of battery module, which is composed of pouchtype standard cells and can be packed in different quantities as required for each vehicle. Unlike previous BEVs, which only accept one-way charging, the E-GMP’s charging system is more flexible.

The E-GMP will underpin the Seoul-sited company’s plans to roll out a total of 23 BEV models including 11 dedicated BEV models, and sell more than 1 million BEVs worldwide by 2025.

Germany’s car makers targeting zero emissions Automotive makers are taking responsibility to curb the carbon footprints by rolling out initiatives and technologies to meet the carbon emission targets.

Mitsubishi and Nissan jointly produce new electric Kei-cars in line with the aim to reduce CO2 emissions by 40%

2 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

www.injectionmouldingasia.com

Injection Moulding Asia Automotive The Kassel and Tianjin components plants are jointly working on the industrialisation process for the new product. At present, the technical capacity installed at both sites corresponds to up to 880,000 electric drives/year. Production is to be expanded by up to 1.4 million electric drives as early as 2023, making VW Group Components one of the largest producers of electric drives in the world.

Stuttgart-based premium car and commercial vehicles manufacturer Daimler is also treading along the carbon-neutral path. From 2022, all its European Mercedes-Benz cars and vans plants will be CO2-neutral. By the same The VW ID.4 is the first purely electric SUV from Volkswagen, delivered in a CO2 period, the European plants of Daimler neutral manner trucks & buses are also to have carbon Germany’s Volkswagen (VW) has launched new neutral power supplies. As an example, Daimler’s drive technologies and production methods to keep at factory 56, a new plant on the Mercedes-Benz site in its carbon neutral commitment to 2050. These include Sindelfingen, is supplied with CO2-neutral energy. cutting down CO2 emissions produced per vehicle A photovoltaic system is installed on the roof, which by 45% by 2025, and utilising renewably-sourced feeds 5,000 MWh/year of self-generated, green electricity at its Zwickau EV plant and using a CO2energy to the plant. neutral gas, eventually, for its combined heat power

Another Stuttgart-domiciled automotive maker (CHP) plant.

Porsche has early this year launched two new

As the company sets its sight to carbon neutrality, cogeneration plants in operation in Stuttgart to the Wolfsburg-headquartered car maker is investing enable a CO2-neutral production of the Taycan EUR33 billion to achieve the goal of electrifying its fully-electric sports car, launched in 2019. The heat product portfolio in all segments by the end of 2024. and power plants, each having output of around 2 By 2029, the group said it is launching up to 75 pure MW, run exclusively on biogas and residual products e-models and to sell 26 million e-cars. Around 20 produced from organic waste, it said. In addition, million of VW’s EVs planned by 2029 will be based Porsche will be using bioenergy from the city’s on the modular electric drive matrix (MEB) platform. organic waste plant as soon as the City of Stuttgart

The compact ID.3 is the first electric car based commissions the plant in 2021. on the MEB, to be followed by its first purely electric SUV, the ID.4.

Additionally, VW will convert a total of eight plants for the production of MEB vehicles by 2022.

Meanwhile, the company’s Chinese components factory in Tianjin will be producing the APP 310 drive on the MEB. This component will be used in the ID.4 variants produced by the joint venture FAW (ID.4 CROZZ) and SAIC (ID.4 X).

The main factory for electric drives at VW Group in Kassel produces the APP 310 motor for current and future MEB models in Europe and North America.

Porsche’s two new cogeneration plants run exclusively on biogas and residual products produced from organic waste

3 A NU OG VE UM ST B E2R0 2/ 0D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0

www.injectionmouldingasia.com

Injection Moulding Asia Automotive Material cooperation on decarbonisation agenda Meanwhile, Porsche, together with blockchain supply chain transparency provider Circularise, are collaborating with European materials suppliers Borealis, Covestro and Domo Chemicals to enable the traceability of plastics in the automotive sector, and to ensure that the use of sustainable materials in Porsche cars can be proven. The team-up launched a blockchain traceability project as part of the Startup Autobahn programme.

Circularise’s expertise in digitalising enables material traceability, tracking the CO2 footprint and other sustainability metrics like water savings.

carries all relevant information regarding the batch, such as its environmental footprint and origin.

This digital thread created transparency between project partners leading to improved supply chain collaboration.

However, the companies cannot simply create a digital twin. First, the batch of materials needs to be audited by an independent third party to verify that the material and related claims are true. Once the materials are digitised, the parties along the supply chain can now update the digital twin mimicking the physical supply chain and reflecting the manufacturing processes along the lifecycle of the product. Due to Circularise’s “Smart Questioning” technology this process can happen while preserving everyone’s privacy regarding their identity and business relations and protecting confidential information, such as material composition, a contention for Covestro, for example.

Another partnership orientated to low carbon emission materials is between German chemical company BASF and Chinese automotive parts manufacturer Kunshan Huguang. The partners inked a deal to develop high and low voltage wiring harness and low emission PU-system product application.

BASF’s custom-made PU systems allow Huguang to simplify the production process and increase efficiency; as well as enable labour cost savings, owing to the sound absorption, water-resistance properties, and adjustable hardness of the PU product to ensure 3D cable harness shaping. Huguang has been partnering with BASF since 2019 to develop PU materials for the automotive industry.

With prospects of sales and demand picking up from this year onwards, carbon-neutral vehicles are bound to turn the sector‘s ambition to reduce emissions into reality.

Porsche and Circularise are collaborating with Borealis, Covestro and Domo to enable the traceability of plastics in the automotive sector

Getting information from supply chains has always been a challenge, according to the partners, not only because of the inherent complexity of the supply chains and the multitude of suppliers, but also due to concerns around trust, privacy and confidentiality.

The patent-pending technology is for creating verified statements on public blockchains without revealing any underlying sensitive data, the partners said.

Porsche said it needs to know details on the parts and materials used in their cars, including obtaining information on production processes deep down the supply chain, statements of recycled content and more.

Each batch of material is digitised on the blockchain receiving a digital copy BASF and Kunshan Huguang partnered to co-create high and low voltage wiring harness and low emission PU systems called digital twin, which 4 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

www.injectionmouldingasia.com

Injection Moulding Asia Machinery News Engel’s fastest dual-platen machine on the market

market, says Engel. The compact size makes the duo speed shorter than comparable machines used in this field of application. In addition, the platen geometry has been optimised for the special requirements of the packaging industry.

Thanks to exposed tie-bars, the machine has a clean mould area. It also relies on Engel’s ecodrive servohydraulics with operating point optimisation and is equipped with an electric motor-driven screw drive.

Optimised accumulators are used for particularly fast injection to support demand-driven charging of the accumulators to further improve energy efficiency.

The duo speed already features a barrier screw and sliding ring non-return valve optimised for PP and HDPE as standard equipment.

Austrian machinery maker Engel’s new duo speed injection moulding machine is said to combine productivity and efficiency with short cycle times in the high clamping force range. Available with clamping forces from 5,000 to 11,000 kN, the machine is aimed at manufacturers of buckets and storage and transport containers.

Based on the Engel duo platform, it has been specifically adapted to the requirements of packaging applications on both the clamping and injection unit sides.

The development focus was on short cycle times, with dry cycle times between 2.35 and 3.4 seconds, making it the fastest dual-platen injection moulding machine on the

Engel’s dualplaten machine was built to cater to faster cycle times

New large vertical machine from Nissei

The amount of the required hydraulic oil is reduced by 52%, thanks to the new clamping mechanism (saving resources and cost), plus the machine design permits easy conversion to three-stage mould mounting face. With a three-tie-bar wide turntable and wide daylight opening, larger moulds are possible and the servomotor-driven turntable rotation and ejector motion achieve faster cycles.

Japanese firm Nissei Plastic Industrial says its TWX, one of the best-selling mid-to-large size hybrid type vertical injection moulding machine series, is widely used for insert moulding applications, such as automotive and electronics parts. It has now added a large TWX300RIII36V 300-tonne machine to the TWX line up.

A notable feature of this machine is the compoundtype clamping mechanism that consists of a high-speed cylinder, high-pressure clamping cylinder, and half-nut mechanism, which replace a conventional cylinder that controls both high-speed clamping and high-pressure clamping with one clamping cylinder.

Because of this new mechanism, the mould mounting height is lowered to 1,000 mm throughout the line-up (about 30% lower than conventional machines). It makes mould installation/set-up, insert, and product takeout as well as robot placement and maintenance easier.

The overall machine height is about 10% lower, offering flexibility for the installation space (height).

Other features include a direct-pressure type clamping mechanism that evenly transmits clamping force. It is resistant to temperature change, generating consistent clamping force according to the setting.

Setting optimal (low) clamping force, which is gentle to the mould, is easy. It also offers low-pressure mould protection performance, which detects foreign objects during mould opening/closing, preventing mould damage from the misalignment of insert workpieces.

Nissei’s latest TWX220R (left) has a shorter height compared to the previous 220-tonne machine (right)

5 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

www.injectionmouldingasia.com

Injection Moulding Asia Machinery News Husky’s NexPET preform solution for multiple applications

KraussMaffei’s system for LSR coffee cup lids

Silicone is flexible, antibacterial, temperature-resistant, durable and it does not contain any plasticisers. These properties make liquid silicone rubber (LSR) the ideal raw material for coffee cup lids.

To enable the production of LSR coffee cup lids, German machinery maker KraussMaffei has put together a network of partners, such as toolmaker ACH Solution and material manufacturer Wacker Chemie, which provides its Elastisol LR5040 series.

Using the turnkey system, two different covers are created in one shot on KraussMaffei’s fully electric PX 121-180 SilcoSet. One is for thick-walled porcelain cups and one for the well-known Recup deposit system, which is now widespread in many cities and regions.

The article weights are 38 and 50 g, whereby the heavier Recup lid has a decorative feature. The attached tab can be decorated with advertising or a small message by laser.

The greatest challenge when processing LSR is its low viscosity. The mould has to close extremely tightly in order to achieve a stable process; very often a vacuum is even applied. In addition, the temperature control is reversed compared to thermoplastics. The tool is heated so that the crosslinking process can even start.

On the machine side, the perfect sealing of the dosing and injection unit is also important. Since silicones are subject to comparatively large batches and the resulting process fluctuations, particular attention must be paid to the constant weight of the manufactured components.

KraussMaffei’s APC plus machine function determines the viscosity of the material during production and adjusts the filling volume from shot to shot in the cycle.

After removal and camera inspection for complete demoulding and geometrical correctness, the coffee lids are then ready for use without being tempered.

Krauss Maffei adds, “With the right partner, it is so easy and risk-free to participate in the silicone growth market.” Further growth rates are already being predicted, it emphasises.

Canadian machinery maker Husky Injection Molding Systems has launched its new NexPET system – a midvolume PET preform moulding solution purpose-built to help producers introduce multiple new applications into the market more quickly and cost-effectively.

The NexPET system is engineered to enable both established and emerging producers be more competitive by better. For established producers, NexPET delivers a solution to accommodate niche brands or smaller run SKUs. For emerging producers, it enables fast, low-risk entry into markets.

NexPET can run up to a 48-cavity mould and recycled PET pellets plus is equipped with a number of features such as the 25% faster mould changeovers to support a multiple preform design environment. It also offers a choice of different screw diameters to maximise production output flexibility and features the Reflex PET clamp to distribute the right amount of force and maximising mould life.

Husky’s NextPET is a mid-volume PET preform moulding solution

The rotating end-of-arm tool with up to three cooling positions to ensure preforms are ejected at ideal temperatures and with intuitive, easy-to-use controls that fast set-up, maximised uptime, optimal energy management and central control of auxiliaries is possible.

Furthermore, the adaptive system pressure automatically adjusts oil pressure to suit specific applications while conserving energy

“Consumers are increasingly demanding more personalised products catered to their unique lifestyles and tastes. The global climate created by Covid-19 has amplified this trend, forcing many producers to rapidly adapt operations to scale up new applications like hand sanitiser, disinfectant and other health, personal care or cleaning related products,” said Robert Domodossola, Husky’s President of Rigid Packaging.

Husky’s system supports a wider variety of applications, more SKUs, shorter production runs and more frequent design changeovers. The system’s flexible design is ideally suited to meet continuously changing production requirements, while maintaining the SixSigma part quality.

Krauss Maffei offers a turnkey system for LSR coffee cup lids

6 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

www.injectionmouldingasia.com

Rubber Journal Asia Industry News • Supplier of custom compounded rubber AirBoss of America Corp has acquired the 45% minority interest in AirBoss Defense Group (ADG) that it does not currently own from Critical Solutions Holdings (CSH). CSH will be paid through the issuance of 3.5 million AirBoss common shares and US$20 million of cash, with US$5 million payable on closing and US$5 million payable on a quarterly basis for the following three quarters.

• Scandinavian end-of-life-tyre (ELT) recycler Enviro Systems’ representative in the UK market, 2G BioPOWER, has been granted the equivalent of SEK2.5 million for a feasibility study that will investigate the possibilities for the large-scale introduction of Enviro’s recovery technology for ELTs in the UK. Meanwhile, Enviro and French tyre manufacturer Michelin’s agreement is expected to be reached during the fourth quarter 2020.

• Japan-based Yokohama Rubber will consolidate its off-thehighway businesses into one single entity, Yokohama OffHighway Tires and will merge the Alliance Tire Group (ATG), which Yokohama bought four years ago, and its worldwide off-the-road tyre businesses. As a first step, Yokohama Rubber’s OTR tyre business in the US will be combined with Alliance Tire Americas Inc in January 2021.

• German automotive parts manufacturer Continental has acquired a minority stake in US-based start-up AEye Inc, a developer of vision solutions for autonomous vehicles using light detection and ranging technology (LiDAR). Early on in March, Continental also took up an investment in Munichbased LiDAR start-up Blickfeld.

Continental said it will use this LiDAR technology and industrialise the sensor to deliver an automotive-grade product.

The first series production is scheduled for the end of 2024.

• Norway’s silicones supplier Elkem recently signed letters of intent with three Chinese customers, with a potential total contract value of more than US$150 million.

• Taiwanese specialist silicone products manufacturer General Silicones Co is thriving even during the coronavirus pandemic, with an “unprecedented” 65% increase in global demand for its medical-grade products in the first six months of 2020. The spike in demand has come from US and European customers seeking parts for respiratory assistance equipment.

Customised silicone parts are also needed for other medical equipment and to meet this, General Silicones has invested in new LSR injection moulding machines.

• Materials firm Trinseo has tied up with Switzerland’s Tyre Recycling Solutions (TRS) on a commercial collaboration as well as with an equity investment in TRS. The two companies will collaborate on R&D, pooling their combined technology expertise to help global tyre manufacturers develop more sustainable tyre formulations.

• The US unit of tyre pyrolysis company Pyrolyx has filed for bankruptcy following a failure to raise capital for a major plan to restructure company debt. The plan included the restructuring of around US$30 million in “senior debt” secured against Pyrolyx’s Terre Haute facility and site, and a US$10-million business recapitalisation.

• Swedish naphthenic base oil manufacturer Nynas AB has filed for company reorganisation as its loans have not been extended by banks and since it cannot pay due debts. Meanwhile, it has formulated a proposal as a result of the ongoing negotiations between major creditors. Nynas’s financial difficulties originate from the US trade sanctions against its 50% shareholder, Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA. Finland’s Neste, a minority-owner of Nynas with a 49.99% ownership, has fully written-off its investment in the third quarter of 2019.

• One of the world’s largest producers of synthetic rubber and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, Arlanxeo, will close its 140,000-tonne/year neodymium-based performance butadiene rubber (Nd-PBR) plant in Jurong Island, Singapore, by end of 2020. It said this is in line with “changes in the rubber industry” and its efforts to “help optimise resources and capabilities in its global Nd-PBR production network”. The Singapore EUR200 million plant was officially opened in 2015 and was the company’s first in Asia, catering to the Asia-Pacific market. Nd-PBR is used in tyre walls and treads.

• UK chemical firm Synthomer will close its styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) latex facility in Oulu, Finland, by 2021, due to weak demand for coated graphic paper. It has four SBR facilities in Europe, in Germany, Italy, Finland and Austria. While consultations are currently ongoing at the Marl facility in Germany, with an outcome expected end of this year, Synthomer says it remains committed to the SBR markets in Europe, and will supply its customers from its Central European asset base.

1 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

www.rubberjournalasia.com

Rubber Journal Asia Industry News • French tyre maker Michelin Group and Canadian plastics recycling start-up Pyrowave have joined forces to accelerate time-to-market for a waste recovery technology developed

by Pyrowave for commercially reusable styrene at an investment of more than EUR20 million. Commercial roll-out is expected in international markets by 2023.

• Dutch energy trader Vitol and tyre recycling company Wastefront have entered into a ten-year offtake agreement with a supply order for waste tyre fuel produced at Wastefront’s UK plant, which is due to be completed in 2023. The plant will have a capacity to process 60,000 tonnes/year of waste tyres, which would produce about 30,000 tonnes of liquid fuel to be bought by Vitol.

About half the output from the plant will be liquid fuel, around 40% will be recovered carbon black and the remaining 10% will be gas used to cover most of the plant’s energy needs.

• US nitrile glove maker Showa Group, which is the country’s only nitrile glove maker, is doubling production at its Alabama facility. Work on the US$20 million project includes the addition of two new lines that will each produce about 200 million gloves/year.

The first line is expected to be operational in April 2021 with the second line in May. In the midst of the pandemic, the US is consuming nearly 45-50 billion gloves/month.

Not only is less than half of all PPE (gloves, masks, respirators, etc.) manufactured in North America, but more than 95% of PPE glove supply is currently manufactured in Asia (predominantly China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand).

• Tyre retreader Vipal Rubber Corp has begun operations at its US$20 million 7,600 sq m manufacturing facility in Santa Fe, Argentina, Vipal’s first manufacturing unit outside Brazil. The unit will produce precured treads for tyre retreads for both the Argentinian and export markets. The unit has an installed capacity of 1,000 tonnes/month of rubber mixture, with 600 tonnes/month destined for the production of precured treads.

• Carbon black manufacturers Bolder Industries and Continental Carbon Company are to produce pre-blended fillers for the global market.

Bolder and CCC will jointly supply the industry with the first-ever commercially available sustainable blend of CCC’s carbon black grades with Bolder’s flagship virgin carbon black alternative, from post-industrial tyres and rubber scrap.

• Sri Lanka’s Laugfs Corporation is to double its tyre manufacturing output with a new solid tyre plant, to be completed in two years’ time. This plant, along with another planned industrial pneumatic tyre plant, will expand the company’s production capacity. It has also expanded its distribution network by appointing three new distributors in France, UAE and the West Coast, US. • Goodyear Tire & Rubber has banked on soybean oil to replace petroleum-based oils in many of its premium tyre brands over the last couple of years. The company has since partnered with the United Soybean Board (USB) to manage the performance of tyres and reduce reliability on petroleum-based oils. Soybean oil has replaced petroleum oil entirely in Goodyear’s Assurance Weather Ready tyre; the Eagle

Enforcer All Weather tyre, used on police cruisers; and the Eagle Exhilarate tyre, all introduced over the last three years.

Goodyear’s recent partnership with sports fashion retailer Sketchers also finds soybean oil being compounded into shoes.

• Malaysian property developer and plastic products manufacturer Mah Sing Group has begun additional piling works to accommodate 12 units of glove dipping machines at its 287,500-sq ft glove manufacturing factory in Kapar, Klang. Under its Phase I operations, it will have a capacity of up to 3.68 billion pieces/year of gloves and will start up from April 2021 onwards.

• Oil and gas corporation, MOL Group, has invested in a US$10 million rubber bitumen plant at its Zalaegerszeg site in western Hungary. It has a capacity for 20,000 tonnes/year of rubber bitumen, which covers about 10-15% of the domestic bitumen demand and is enough to construct a standard 200 km highway or to refurbish the upper layer of 600 km of a highway.

MOL Group says it is aiming to establish itself as the market leader for recycling in Central and Eastern Europe and the completion of the Zala rubber bitumen plant is in line with this.

• A new research project undertaken by Tyre Stewardship Australia and RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, will evaluate the performance of crumb rubber made from passenger car tyres in bitumen and asphalt. It aims to ascertain whether there are any performance differences between passenger and truck tyres in asphalt road applications. The partners will run bitumen lab testing until July 2021, with asphalt testing completed a year later.

2 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

www.rubberjournalasia.com

Rubber Journal Asia Country Focus

Indonesia’s rubber sustainability at a crossroads Deforestation in Indonesia, the world’s

build solutions grounded on sustainability,

of these areas, located in Jambi and North-East Kalimantan-Timur, rubber trees will be planted to produce an estimated 80,000 tonnes/year; while the remaining land will be allotted for re-creating a natural environment and community crops, Michelin said in a press statement.

The company’s four-year partnership with WWF is to ensure that best practices are observed throughout the RLU project, with WWF having presence on concessions bordering those of Michelin/Barito in Jambi. The local coordination also aims to protect the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park and Limau Protected Forest, which are at risk of deforestation.

Michelin/WWF: making responsible rubber sourcing a priority Rubber is Indonesia’s golden goose, with most of the rubber production coming from South and North Sumatra, Jambi, Riau, and West Kalimantan.

The Indonesian market, according to TechSci Research, was valued at US$3.35 billion in 2019, and is poised to grow at a CAGR of nearly 6% through 2025.

Indonesia-domiciled tyre maker Gajah Tunggal, despite a sales decline in the pandemic period, remains the largest producer in Southeast Asia, followed by Bridgestone.

Meanwhile, French tyre maker Michelin is a prominent figure in the Indonesian tyre market space, having acquired Indonesian tyre manufacturer Multistrada Arah Sarana in 2019.

The company was the first tyre maker to commit to responsible rubber sourcing, according to the World Wide Fund (WWF), which in 2016 cooperated with Michelin on the sustainable rubber sourcing policy, since rubber plantations are a major cause of deforestation in Southeast Asia.

To enable success of this objective is to develop responsibly-managed plantations on degraded land with full consent by tenure-holding local communities, instead of grabbing land and clearing high quality natural forests, WWF commented.

In 2015, Michelin entered into a joint-venture with PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical subsidiary, Barito Pacific Group (BPG), to produce rubber.

Known as Royal Lestari Utama (RLU), the joint venture, 53% for BPG and 47% for Michelin, involves the reforestation of three concessions, representing a total area of 88,000 ha. On half

Mighty Earth puts RLU’s sustainability under the spotlight The RLU project, however, has come under scrutiny from environmental expert Mighty Earth. The US-based firm has said that Michelin has “coveredup” industry-scale deforestation of over 2,500 ha of rainforest.

In a new report, “Complicit: An Investigation into Deforestation at Michelin’s Royal Lestari Utama Project in Sumatra, Indonesia”, Mighty Earth said that the “industrial deforestation” has been carried out over a 33-month period to January 2015 to make way for natural Mighty Earth’s Campaign Director, rubber plantations in Alex Wijeratna, challenges Michelin to flex its industry leadership Jambi. Of this, Mighty position “for greater transparency Earth also found 1,298 across the whole rubber supply ha of rainforest was chain” industrially deforested in a Wildlife Conservation Area (WCA), and which is now planted with thousands of rubber trees.

Mighty Earth also found that the Michelin RLU project has since attracted financing from Asia’s first US$95 million corporate sustainability ‘Green bond’, as well as public funds from Norway, the UK and the US, and is slated to receive further financing from a second US$120 million green bond.

Alex Wijeratna, Campaign Director at Mighty Earth, said that Michelin was aware of the “terrible forest destruction”, but “didn’t do enough to stop it, and instead chose to provide green cover to the project in order to attract green bond investors that have since sunk millions of dollars into the scheme.”

second largest natural rubber producer,

is an issue to reckon with. According to Greenpeace, the country has one of the

highest rates of deforestation globally, with over 74 million ha cleared for agriculture, as well as mining concessions. Thus,

rubber sector stakeholders are shuffling to says Angelica Buan in this article.

3 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

www.rubberjournalasia.com

Rubber Journal Asia Country Focus Mighty Earth’s report also claimed that PT Lestari Asri Jaya had “perpetrated much of this destruction through industrial forest clearance”.

According to their findings, in 2012, there was 3,966 ha of intact forest covering almost the entire case study area. By the time the joint venture project began in January 2015, only 138 ha of that forest remained. Mighty Earth furthered that high-resolution satellite images point to large-scale rubber planting replacing this natural forest.

Mighty Earth, voiced by Wijeratna, is calling for an independent investigation “to get to the bottom of the murky business during the run-up to this so-called green rubber project, and believe the second ‘green bond’ offering shouldn’t go ahead until all the facts about what happened in Jambi are in the public domain”.

The research team, working with Indonesian researchers (as part of the collaborative GermanIndonesian research project, EFForTS (Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems), interviewed villagers in the surveyed areas as well as carried out intensive qualitative content analysis, studying press releases and media coverage about Michelin’s plantation project.

Wijeratna, taking a swipe at Michelin’s reservations not to disclose the companies it is sourcing rubber from, challenges the tyre maker to be more transparent.

“If Michelin is to live up to its stated zerodeforestation and human rights aspirations, it needs to come clean about what happened in Jambi, and use its industry leadership position to become a champion for greater transparency across the whole rubber supply chain,” he said.

RLU: we follow the rules!

RLU, meanwhile, offered its response to the Mighty Earth report and refuted Mighty Earth’s allegations of “illegal deforestation in the Jambi concessions held

by BGP subsidiaries, between 2012 and 2014, before RLU was formed”.

RLU stated that A study by a research team from the University of Göttingen verified sustainability claims of Michelin against the subsidiaries fully the effects to land-ownership, ecosystems, and biodiversity as relayed by the locals respect and comply with all prevailing Indonesian laws and with proper German researchers collude with Mighty Earth forestry permitting.

Meanwhile, researchers from Germany’s University of Göttingen shared Mighty Earth’s view. A study, published in the Journal of Land Use Science, verified claims of Michelin regarding sustainability, including conservation, which were then compared with the effects described by local people in the village of Muara Sekalo in Indonesia.

A press statement released recently by the researchers relayed the detrimental effects to land-ownership, ecosystems and biodiversity as claimed by villagers. The researchers also found that salaries at the rubber plantation were lower than the minimum wage for the province. The RLU project involves the reforestation of three concessions, representing a total area of 88,000 ha

4 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2020

www.rubberjournalasia.com

Rubber Journal Asia Country Focus RLU also stressed that since its establishment, the partners “have all issued their own No Deforestation, No Peatland Development, No Burning, and No Exploitation (NDPE) policies”.

It went on to explain that in 2017, a 9,700-ha WCA was established by the company and partners, adjacent to the 143,000-ha Bukit Tigapuluh National Park to protect wildlife habitat through the concessions. RLU also clarified other concerns such as livelihood, health, and community issues.

The policy comprises eight core commitments around legal compliance, ecosystems, human rights and community livelihoods, production efficiency, supply chain traceability, monitoring and reporting, and processes to effectively implement these commitments, he said.

“Our members are expected to have their company policies or other documents aligned with these requirements by the end of March 2021,” he added.

Sustainability: lesson for a post-pandemic economy The rubber sector, which has experienced demand blows in previous years and significantly during the pandemic, is anticipating recovery as China and other major consumers restart their economies.

With demand expected to rise again in the postpandemic years, will it dent the rubber industry’s sustainability cause? Is sustainability high on the list?

Savi, when asked to comment, said, “Yes, absolutely, there is such a thing as a sustainable, ecofriendly rubber and tyre production. It is something that the entire industry should strive towards.”

He went on to say that natural rubber and tyres can be produced in economically, environmentally and socially sustainable ways, without deforestation.

“By minimising energy usage and carbon emissions, and by adhering to human rights and labour laws and respecting the traditional rights of indigenous people,” he intoned.

Savi believes that this involves “a significant transformation of the natural rubber industry, something which won’t happen overnight.”

“It’s a journey of continuous improvement, and one that GPSNR members are committed to, particularly with the adoption of the commitments under our newly approved sustainability policy framework. Our members will have to set time bound action plans to deliver on these commitments, and take bigger steps towards achieving our vision of a fair, equitable and environmentally-sound natural rubber value chain, “ he added.

Asked how he sees the rubber sustainability situation in the post-pandemic era, he opined that sustainability’s relevance and importance will be significant.

“Already we are seeing a connection between land-use changes and emerging animal-borne viruses. Furthermore, unsustainable practices, such as the failure to provide decent living conditions for workers serve only to accelerate the spread of diseases. This underscores the importance of sustainability not only for natural rubber, but across commodities and landscapes.”

He went on to say that as economies recover from the impact of Covid-19, demand from consumers especially, will ensure that products are produced more sustainably.

Ban on deforestation; GPSNR members to toe the line In bid to tackle deforestation, the Indonesian government issued a permanent ban on new forest clearance for palm plantations or logging activities. The moratorium, first introduced in 2011, encompasses an estimated 66 million ha of primary forest and peatland.

Aside from this policy, Indonesia has a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) roadmap, including strategies to curbing deforestation as well as forest degradation within 2020-2024 to 2030.

Meanwhile, the GPSNR (Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber) , an international, multi-stakeholder organisation comprised of tyre and carmakers, rubber producers and processors, and other rubber sector players, has a sustainability framework policy. It supports its members to establish or update supply chain commitments through their natural rubber production and purchasing policies, Stefano Savi, Director of GPSNR told PRA in an email interview.

Michelin, as well as other global tyre makers and NR buyers and producers are also members of the GPSNR, which was initiated in 2017 by the CEOs of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Tyre Industry Project (TIP).

As economies recover from the impact of Covid-19, demand from consumers will ensure that products are produced more sustainably, according to GPSNR Director, Stefano Savi

5 AU N OG VE UM ST B E2R0 2/ 0D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0

www.rubberjournalasia.com

Events 2020

15 - 16 DECEMBER Thermoplastic Elastomers World Summit Venue: Online Event Tel: + 44 (0) 1372 802 202 Email: phaggerty@smithers.com Internet: www.elastomer-forum.com/tpe-elastomersworld-summit-2020

2021

9 - 11 MARCH PLASTIMAGEN Mexico Venue: Centro Citibanamex, Mexico City Tel: (55) 1087.1650 Ext. 1182 Email: carmen.sanchez@tarsus.mx Internet: www.plastimagen.com.mx 16 - 20 MARCH KOPLAS Venue: Kintex, Korea Tel: 82(2) 551-0102 Fax: 82(2) 551-0103 Email: koplas@koplas.com Internet: www.koplas.com 30 - 31 MARCH 2nd PHA platform World Congress Venue: Cologne, Germany Tel: +49 2161 6884469 Email: mt@bioplasticsmagazine.com Internet: bit.ly/3jRggRI 13 - 16 APRIL Chinaplas Venue: Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Centre, PR China Tel: +852 2516 3554 Fax: +852 2516 5024 Email: chinaplas@adsale.com.hk Internet: www.chinaplasonline.com 4 - 7 MAY Plast Venue: Milan, Italy Tel: +39 02 8228371 Fax: +39 02 57512490 Email: info@plastonline.org Internet: www.plastonline.org

17 - 21 MAY NPE Venue: Orlando, Florida Tel: +1 202 974 5235 Fax: +1 202 296 7243 Email: npe@npe.org Internet: www.npe.org 1 - 3 JUNE JEC World Venue: Paris-Nord Villepinte Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 01 Email: Exhibitors-jecworld@jeccomposites.com Internet: www.jeccomposites.com 2 - 5 JUNE INDOPLAS Venue: Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran, Indonesia Tel: (65) 6332 9645 Email: rita_biswas@mda.com.sg Internet: www.indoprintpackplas.com 8 - 10 JUNE Labelexpo Americas Venue: Donald E. Stephen Convention Center, Chicago Tel: +1 262 782 1900 Email: support@labelexpo.com Internet: www.labelexpo-americas.com 15 - 17 JUNE Rosmould | Roplast Venue: IEC "Crocus Expo", Moscow Tel: +7 495 649 8775 ext.109 Email: dmitry.shelamov@russia.messefrankfurt.com Internet: www.rosmould.ru.messefrankfurt.com 16 - 19 JUNE ProPak Asia Venue: BITEC, Bangkok, Thailand Tel: +65 6233 6688 Fax: +65 6233 6633 Email: jeffrey.au@informa.com Internet: www.propakasia.com 23 - 25 JUNE Plastics Expo Osaka Venue: INTEX Osaka, Japan Tel: +81-3-3349-8568 Email: materialweek-e@reedexpo.co.jp Internet: www.plas.jp/en-gb.html 23 - 26 JUNE METALTECH & AUTOMEX Venue: MITEC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel: +603-9771 2625 Email: marketing@metaltech.com.my Internet: www.metaltech.com.my

ADVERTISERS’ ENQUIRIES Check out the Advertisers' page on our website.

Information is categorised by the YEAR & DATE of publication for easy reference.

For further details, email us at: news@plasticsandrubberasia.com

PRA Digital issue is available ONLINE! www.plasticsandrubberasia.com

INTERNATIONAL OFFICES Publishing Office/Scandinavia, Benelux & France Postbus 130, 7470 AC Goor, The Netherlands Tel: +31 547 275005 Fax: +31 547 271831 Email: arthur@kenter.nl Contact: Arthur Schavemaker Regional Office SQ9, Block A, Menara Indah, Taman TAR, 68000 Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia Tel: +603 4260 4575 Fax: +603 4260 4576 Email: tej@plasticsandrubberasia.com Contact: Tej Fernandez China & Hong Kong Room 803, No.2, Lane 3518, Road Bao'An, District Jiading, Shanghai Tel: +86 13341690552 Mobile: +86 17751702720 Email: henry.xiao@matchexpo.com Contact: Henry Xiao/Zhu Wei China Bridge Media 亚桥传媒 Room 206, #1, 569 Shilong Rd, Shanghai, China 200237 Tel: +86 21 3368 7053 Mobile: +86 138 1643 7421 Email: lagopoah.yang@bridgemedia.cn Contact: Lago Poah Yang 杨旋 凯 Southeast Germany, Switzerland & Austria Verlagsbüro G. Fahr e.K Breitenbergstrasse 17 D-87629 Füssen, Germany Tel: +49 8362 5054990 Fax: +49 8362 5054992 Email: info@verlagsbuero-fahr.de Contact: Simon Fahr North-West Germany JRM Medien+Verlag Minkelsches Feld 39 D-46499 Hamminkeln, Germany Tel: +49 2852 94180 Fax: +49 2852 94181 E-mail: info@jwmedien.de Contact: Jürgen Wickenhöfer Malaysia. India, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Korea & Philippines Tara Media & Communications SQ 9, Block A, Menara Indah Jalan 9, Taman TAR, 68000 Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia Tel: +603 4260 4575 Fax: +603 4260 4576 Email: winston@taramedia.com.my Contact: Winston Fernandez Italy, Spain & Portugal MediaPoint & Communications Srl Corte Lambruschini, Corso Buenos Aires, 8, Vo Piano - Interno 9, 16129 Genova, Italy Tel: +39 010 570 4948 Fax: +39 010 553 0088 Email: info@mediapointsrl.it Contact: Fabio Potesta Taiwan 宗久實業有限公司 Worldwide Services 11F-B, No.540 Sec.1, Wen Hsin Rd., Taichung, Taiwan Tel: +886 4 23251784 Fax: +886 4 23252967 Email: global@acw.com.tw Contact: Robert Yu 游宗敏 USA & Canada Plastics Media International P. O. Box 44, Greenlawn, New York 117430, USA Tel/Fax: +1 631 673 0072 Email: charlotte@4m-media.com Contact: Charlotte Alexandra

www.plasticsandrubberasia.com www.rubberjournalasia.com www.injectionmouldingasia.com www.plasticsandrubberasia.cn