Injection Molding products China manufacturer

BASF AG chairman Jurgen Hambrecht, along with other German executives, reiterated concerns and criticism about Chinese policies that they believe put foreign companies at a disadvantage in a meeting with Premier Wen Jiabao.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Hambrecht complained about rules that foreign firms say compel them to transfer valuable intellectual property in order to gain access to the world’s largest market.

“That does not exactly correspond to our views of a partnership,” said Hambrecht, according to a German reporter present at the meeting.

The meeting took place last Saturday in Xi’an, and included German and Chinese executives as well as Wen and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Wen rebutted and said the allegation is untrue.

German executives also raised concerns about Beijing’s efforts to limit the export of rare earth minerals, which are used in electric car batteries and other high-tech products. China has the world’s largest reserves of some of those elements. Wen promised to remain open on the export issue.

Hambrecht was chairman of the Asia Pacific Committee of German Business until this month.

MIDLAND, MICH. (July 27, 2010) — Dow Chemical Co. — one of the world’s largest plastics and chemicals makers — will run a one-day pilot test to determine if plastic waste can be used as fuel in its operations.
The trial is set to take place by the end of July at Dow’s headquarters site in Midland, Mich. Midland ranks as Dow’s second-largest U.S. manufacturing location, trailing only Freeport, Texas.
During the test, plastic waste of all shapes, sizes and resin types will be burned in order to recover its energy, Dow plastics sustainability leader Jeff Wooster said in a July 21 phone interview.
Waste used in the test has been provided by Dow employees, customers and partners. Most of the waste will be composed of polyethylene and polypropylene, Wooster said, and items that already are recycled commonly — such as PET and high density PE bottles and PE stretch film —won’t be used in the trial.
“When we talk to our customers about energy recovery or chemical transformation, they want us to show that it works,” Wooster explained. “This study is going to be one more step in showing that this is do-able and workable.”
Waste used in the trial also doesn’t need to be separated into individual resin types. Dow’s process will use the waste itself directly as a fuel, as opposed to pyrolysis methods, in which plastic waste is heated and converted in to a chemical liquid or fuel which is then re-used. Wooster added that Dow is working with technology partners to evaluate outside waste conversion processes as well.
Dow researchers will measure the amount of energy created by the plastic waste used in the test to see how much it would reduce Dow’s use of natural gas. If the test is successful, Wooster said the next step would be to find a way to implement the process on a larger scale.
Plastic waste is converted into energy at many locations around the world, but the practice has not caught on in the U.S. for a number of reasons.
“It’s a combination of government policies and economic drivers,” Wooster said of that split. “In Japan, there’s no landfill space available, so they have to re-use everything that they have. In northern Europe — places like Germany and Denmark — they also have less landfill space than we have.”
Dow’s effort is significant, since plastics-related business accounted for about 40 percent of Dow’s $46.6 billion sales total in 2009. Basic Plastics — including PE and PP — ranked as Dow’s single largest operating segment, with about 21 percent of 2009 sales.

United Kingdom-based plastics companies are contributing to the sustainability effort across the sites playing host to the London 2012 Olympics.
The British Plastics Federation has had feedback from several of its member companies which have secured contracts to supply Olympic venues with items based on high density polyethylene, PVC and masterbatch products, among others.
Philip Law, BPF’s public and industrial affairs director, said: “London 2012 lays down rigorous requirements for materials and the extensive use of plastics is an endorsement that they can offer sustainable solutions in construction such as, durability, recyclability, energy savings and safety.”
BPF member company Polypipe Terrain is supplying Terrain Fuze (HDPE), Terrain PVC soil and waste systems, and Rainstream rainwater harvesting and underfloor heating to all the major Olympic Park venues, particularly the Athletes Village, the Olympic stadium and the Velodrome.
Adam Turk, Polypipe Terrain’s sales and marketing director, said: “We ensured that our PVC system met all of the Olympic Delivery Authority requirements, and progressed other sustainability benefits generally in order to be in a stronger position to compete for the Olympic work. This included achieving the Carbon Trust standard last September.”
Another BPF member company supplying PVC products to the Olympic Games is Hunter Plastics which will be supplying goods such as Multikwik WC Connectors and Multiwik traps for the temporary buildings.
Innovation in plastics is further reinforced as a headline theme for the London 2012 Olympics as the 2008 BPF’s Horners’ Award winner, The Durakerb Group, has confirmed that it will be supplying both the North and the South Park with its recycled plastic curbing. Durakerb is made from recycled polypropylene and HDPE and a recent study has indicated a near 20 percent carbon reduction using Durakerb compared to traditional precast concrete.
BPF said it also understands that PVC will be used in some iconic stadia at the Games such as a PVC wrap on the two temporary seating wings in the Aquatics Center where up to 17,500 square meters will be needed.
This follows the publication by the London 2012 organizers last May of a strategy document covering the use of PVC in the Games. This laid down various criteria such as the requirement for PVC to be manufactured in accordance with the ECVM Industry Charter for the Production of VCM and PVC.
The use of plastics in the London 2012 Olympic Games extends to other areas than construction. Hornby, the models and collectibles group, has also secured a license to provide official London 2012 merchandise across its Corgi, Hornby, Scalextric and Airfix brands, which rely heavily on the use of plastics in their designs.

Safety assessments of plastic toys should consider overall risk, taking account of their likely use, rather than just focusing on the toxicity of substances used to make them, the European Union’s (EU) Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks has advised.
Following a request from the European Commission for guidance on framing such assessments under the toys safety directive, the committee has advised taking broad but ad hoc approaches to individual toys.
Under the law, the presence of most carcinogenic, mutagenic, and reprotoxic (CMR) substances in is strictly limited, and can exceed individual concentration limits only in toy parts normally inaccessible to children or following a positive opinion of another EU committee - the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety.
However, its colleagues in the health and environmental risks committee have now concluded that “a risk-based approach…as opposed to a hazard-based classification limits approach, should be applied.” It added in a detailed response: “This approach…considers different contact scenarios, oral exposure through mouthing and ingestion of the matrix, dermal exposure through direct contact, and inhalation of compounds released in the vapour form and indirectly through dust.”
The committee said such an approach “requires information on concentrations in simulants [mimicking saliva], frequency and duration of exposure, and absorption rate in order to define appropriate exposure levels to be compared with health-based limit values.”
Its assessment was also cautious about the idea of using existing food contact materials-based tests to make such assessments of plastics, which the Commission is considering to save money and time for regulators and industry.
The committee said that such tests could be adapted for toy assessments, but added “food contact material legislation cannot be generally used to assess the risk to children from exposures to CMR in toys…” Instead it said that a “case-by-case adaptation” would be necessary. The same response came regarding the use of food contact material exposure limits for these substances when used in toys, even by using a common adaptation factor in assessments.
This “would need additional scientific knowledge, currently not available,” said the committee. “Therefore, suitable ad hoc migration testing should be developed for toys.”

Ford Motor Co. will use a soybean urethane foam blend in the seats for the next generation of its Explorer sport utility vehicle, which hits the roads later this year, and claims it will use soy in “nearly 100 percent” of its vehicle fleet by the end of 2010.

The Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker was the first major carmaker to begin using soy urethane blends beginning with the Mustang in 2007. It now uses blends with at least 5 percent soybean oil in seats, seat backs, headliners and other interior parts, estimating that the blend helps it cut its annual petroleum use by 3 million pounds.

Lear Corp., based in Southfield, Mich., is making the seats. It has worked with Ford to improve soy foam and develop commercial applications since 2004.

Ford has also used natural fibers in structural plastics, including a wheat straw in storage bins that made its first appearance in 2009, and has discussed its experiments into using corn-based polylactic acid resin and other bio-based materials.

“Soy foam is just the tip of the iceberg in the development of vehicle materials from natural resources,” said Debbie Mielewski, Ford polymer technical leader, in a June 23 press release. “We have to entertain the thought of bio-replacement in baby steps, looking at every aspect of a car that could be green. One day I hope to see the automotive world go totally compostable, removing the use of petroleum-based parts 100 percent.”

EUROPEAN PLASTICS NEWS

German plastics components maker Balda AG has announced that its new 147,000-square-foot facility for production of plastics mobile phone assemblies in Beijing will be operational from July of this year.

Chief Financial Officer Rainer Mohr said this week that the Beijing facility will become its global manufacturing center for mobile phone industry customers in China. The new facility brings it total production floor space in Beijing to 333,000 square feet.

In a statement, the company said it will transfer suitable future projects planned for its production facility at Suzhou, close to Shanghai, to the Beijing operation.

“The site, situated near the airport of the Chinese capital, will organize manufacturing processes optimally with the most up-to-date technology,” Mohr said. “As of July of this year, the production plant offers the best prerequisites for highly efficient production methods.”

Last year, Bad Oeynhausen-based Balda posted sales of 139 million euros, down by close to 30 percent from 2008. Profit stood at 14.7 million euros for 2009 compared to 31.4 million euros in 2008.

Despite declines in 2009, the mobile phone sector remains an important element in Balda’s business plans.

In March, Mohr said he expected Balda to achieve double digit growth in the mobile phone sector during 2010, although he predicted this would be accompanied by “highly intensive price competition among our customers … which will increase the pressure on the margins.”

The company said its operation in Ipoh, Malaysia, no longer manufactures for the mobile phone industry following the decision of a key customer last year to move its mobile phone production to Balda’s Beijing operation.

As a result the Malaysian operations saw sales fall from 81.2 million euros in 2008 to 15.8 million euros in 2009, while Chinese operations stayed level at around 84 million euros. Balda’s German business unit, which is focused on medical activities, grew from 31.4 million euros to 34.1 million euros.

Balda is a key supplier of plastics assemblies to the electronics and medical sector with manufacturing in Germany, China, India and Malaysia and a product design and development facility in the United States. The company also holds a 21 percent share in Chinese small-format touch screen maker TPK.

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ROMEOVILLE, ILL. (July 6, 2010) — Parc Corp. defines itself as an intermediate processor of engineering resin, extending its traditional plastics recycling business to a more vertically integrated model. President Kathy Xuan is on the search for a compounding partner that can help Parc optimize its growing operation in China.

Romeoville-based Parc has been a leading player bridging the plastics recycling markets in the United States and China. The global financial crisis took a major toll on both markets, but Parc was quick to respond by adding industry veterans, improving operations management and increasing efficiency. These efforts were rewarded by a record high sales volume in 2009, Xuan told Plastics News in an interview.

The strong post-crisis rebound in the Chinese market, especially in automotive and appliances, has fueled demand for recycled plastics, she said.

“We took full advantage of the growth with our one-stop services, from recycling, sorting and processing, to distribution and sales,” Xuan said.

Parc’s facility in Qingdao, Shandong province, has built upon its capability of producing reprocessed pellets and broadened product portfolio.

“For instance, we have successfully developed pellet applications from recycled PET/PP films,” Xuan noted, “We supply PP pellets to auto suppliers and we have started to make compounds.”

Parc’s Qingdao plant is strategically located near appliance giants Haier Gorup, Hisense Co. Ltd., and Aucma Electrical Appliances Co. Ltd., as well as automakers including the China National Heavy Duty Truck Group and Beiqi Foton Motor Co. Ltd. Parc has good relations with these customers in fast-growing areas, Xuan added.

However, the relatively small scale of the Qingdao plant — 5,000 metric tons annually — fails to fully utilize Parc’s steady supply of more than 100,000 metric tons of recycled plastic materials.

Optimistic about the market prospect, Parc is adding 100,000 square feet of manufacturing space at the existing Qingdao plant, bringing the total to 250,000 square feet. Xuan said the expansion will help the company develop its new focus on compounding.

“Being a newcomer in the compounding field, we have a lot to improve in compounding technology and techniques,” she said.

“The Big 3 [automakers] are thriving in China, increasingly using global technology and standards in their local production there,” she added. “We hope to help those compounders that already supply to the multinationals in North America to gain a foothold in China.”

Xuan said the joint venture would start from basic products such as PP, ABS and PC/ABS, but she also is open to applications of high-value added plastics.

The world is changing at a faster pace than ever, she said. China’s strengthening currency and rising labor cost demand manufacturers in China to abandon the outdated large-scale, low-margin model and rely on high tech and high value-added growth.

“That’s exactly where we are heading,” she said.

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