Plastics News Show Daily - April 3, 2012 - (Page 11)

PLASTICS NEWS, April 3, 2012 11 Schulman sets sights on specialty firms By Frank Esposito PLASTICS NEWS STAFF ORLANDO, FLA. — A. Schulman Inc. (Booth 15000) is back at NPE for the first time in 18 years, and has brought along a host of material solutions for plastics processors. “We’re a different company now than we were even four years ago,” Schulman Chairman, President and CEO Joseph Gingo said in an interview at NPE2012 in Orlando. “We’re not doing as much commodity business and are focused on specialty masterbatches and similar products.” He added that NPE “is a great way for us to connect with our customers.” Fairlawn, Ohio-based Schulman ranks as one of North America’s 10 largest makers of compounds and concentrates. Schulman’s fortunes also are improving in North America. In its 2011 fiscal year, which ended Aug. 31, Schulman’s sales in the Americas grew almost 23 percent. Its operating income in the region grew 17 percent, as well. The Americas’ market share of Schulman’s overall sales grew in 2011 for the first time in several years. “The strategy we’ve had is not to shrink Europe at all, but our goal is to grow the Americas and Asia,” Gingo said. He also described Schulman’s recent $63 million purchase of Elian SAS — a color concentrate maker in Oyonnax, France, as “a logical base” from which to grow business in the region. “We had black, white and additive [concentrates] there, but not specialty color,” Gingo said. “This acquisition gives us entry to more than 1,000 customers.” Schulman will continue to seek out further acquisitions of specialty firms such as Elian, he added. On the product side, Schulman is displaying a number of applications using its compounds and concentrates. These include an RV hitch cover made of polypropylene-based Polytrope STR cap resins, but with the highgloss appearance of painted metal. The prototype on display can be used on a camper trailer and can replace metal or other plastics. It’s also available in mediumgloss and ultralow-gloss grades. An automotive fuel tank using Schulamid-brand impact-modified compounds based on nylon 6/12 also is on display. The tank will be commercial next year on BMW 3 model vehicles. The material offers 40 percent higher heat resistance than competing materials and can accommodate smaller engine sizes. Schulman also is emphasizing its Surface Solutions materials line, which it says “imparts visual impact, powerful shelf presence and global brand consistency” in rigid applications. In flexible packaging, Surface Solutions “provide design flexibility to control aesthetics, impart texture and tailor functionality of critical film surfaces.” Examples of Surface Solutions on display at NPE include Paper- Joseph Gingo, A. Schulman chairman, president and CEO, at his firm’s booth at NPE2012 in Orlando, Fla. match-brand synthetic paper concentrates, polylactic acid opacifiers and DUL-brand matte compounds for PP, polyethylene, PET and nylon. Schulman’s overall sales for fis- cal 2011 were almost $2.2 billion, up more than 27 percent vs. fiscal 2010. Courtesy of Oscar Einzig Huntsman sees prime time for manufacturers to resurge By Steve Toloken PLASTICS NEWS STAFF ORLANDO, FLA. — Jon Huntsman Jr. — presidential candidate, plastics executive, U.S. ambassador to China and Utah governor — kicked off the NPE trade show in Orlando by telling a hall of industry executives that rising costs in China give U.S. manufacturing a unique opportunity to regain some lost ground. Huntsman, who worked in his family firm Huntsman Corp. before launching his career in politics, mixed sharp critiques of the state of American politics and thoughts on the rise of China with memories of spending time as a young man in his father’s plastics factory in Fullerton, Calif. But the politically moderate Republican, who speaks Mandarin Chinese and served as President Obama’s ambassador to China, spent much of his time talking about Asia. He said that labor costs in China jumping 15-20 percent a year, and other prices rising, create openings for American manufacturing firms. “It’s a huge opportunity for the United States to recoup our manufacturing prowess,” Huntsman said. “I believe we’re going to do that if we’re smart enough to get on the ball and I believe we’re going to do that because China will become less attractive.” “Prices will go up, the cost of labor will go up and the cost of manufacturing [in China] will go up,” he told the audience of several hundred at the April 1 awards ceremony for the Plastics Hall of Fame. Huntsman’s father, Jon Huntsman Sr., who developed the plastic clamshell container for fast food and started Huntsman Corp., was named to the Plastics Hall of Fame in 1994. Former Gov. Huntsman did not describe in detail how American manufacturing should be revitalized, and while he mentioned plastics as the third-largest manufacturing sector in the United States, he also did not directly speak to the sizable job losses in recent years. Plastics industry employment fell from about 1.1 million in 2005 to 900,000 in 2010, the last year figures are available, according to the Washington-based trade group the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. There are some big changes coming in the U.S.China economic relationship, he said, including much more investment from China to the United See Huntsman, Page 52 Former presidential candidate and plastics veteran Jon Huntsman Jr. talks of “a huge opportunity for the United States to recoup our manufacturing prowess” during an April 1 awards ceremony at NPE2012. See Us At NPE Booth 7289 Plastics News photo by Michael Marcotte  http://www.aetextruder.com http://www.aetextruder.com

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