Plastics News Show Daily - April 4, 2012 - (Page 6)

6 PLASTICS NEWS, April 4, 2012 ExxonMobil adds to metallocenes grades By Frank Esposito PLASTICS NEWS STAFF ORLANDO, FLA. — ExxonMobil Chemical Co. (Room W203A, B, C) is highlighting new grades and applications for its metallocene polyethylene resins. Four processors are running the firm’s materials at the show. Those four are OMV-USA Inc. (Booth 303), Engel Machinery Inc. (Booth 943), Macchi SpA (Booth 5091) and CMD Corp. (Booth 6845). “We’re continuing to expand the market space for our metallocenes,” said John Verity, poly- olefins vice president. “We’ve got more grades that offer more stiffness if you go thinner in films, which had been a challenge.” Houston-based ExxonMobil makes its metallocene PE grades, sold under the Enable and Exceed brand names, at two plants in Texas, a plant in France and recently started producing them at its plant in Singapore. Metallocenes now account for about 20 percent of the firm’s total global PE output, according to Verity. Industry wide, metallocene PE continues to grow at an annual rate of more than 10 percent, which he said is more than dou- ble the rate of standard PE. “We’ve had a very positive response,” Verity added. “Customers are willing to pay for value and performance. We have to talk to them about how the polymers produce value for the business. In heavy duty shipping sacks, we need to show [customers] how metallocenes can allow them to down-gauge, for example.” ExxonMobil also is seeing annual growth rates of more than 50 percent for its Vistamaxx-brand propylene plastomers. The firm will open a massive plant with annual capacity of almost 800 mil- lion pounds of that material in Singapore by mid-year. Like metallocenes, Vistamaxx often is used in film products. In the broader PE market, Verity said North America should average single-digit annual growth for the next several years. The market is still looking to recover to demand levels of 2007, before the regional and global economies declined. Like many PE makers, ExxonMobil and its oil giant parent firm are keeping an eye on the impacts of newfound supplies of natural gas in shale deposits throughout North America. Sev- eral firms already have announced capacity expansions for PE or ethylene feedstock, but ExxonMobil has not. The natural gas situation “has been a dramatic turnaround,” Verity said, but he declined to say whether ExxonMobil will be joining the shale rush. “ExxonMobil usually studies a situation and doesn’t make an announcement until we’re ready with a project.” Techne’s blow-fill debuts By Jessica Holbrook PLASTICS NEWS STAFF ORLANDO, FLA. — Almost a year after purchasing Italian machinery maker Techne SpA, Graham Packaging Co. Inc. (Booth 10536) jumped into the blow molding machinery market. Techne-Graham Packaging Co. Italia introduced its newest machine — a fully electric integrated blow-fill machine dubbed Unika — and promoted its Advance extrusion blow molding line. Unika can blow, fill, label and cap mono- or multilayer bottles on one unit. The machine is suitable for food and industrial applications, and can make bottles from 60 mL to 5L in size at a rate of up to 1,200 bottles per hour. The machine has the potential to save users up to 40 percent in energy costs because it is comparatively small and runs completely on electricity, said David W. Cargile, senior vice president and general manager. Unika is available as a turnkey system, an attractive feature for companies new to the blow molding market, Cargile said. As a company’s volume grows, a new carriage can be added, adding capacity without purchasing a new machine, he added. Techne first displayed its Advance line of fully electric shuttle machines at NPE2009. It is available as a double shuttle or four shuttle unit, and is billed as a high-efficiency, low-energy, flexible machine. Users can monitor both machines remotely using an app that shows the unit’s status and productivity and sends users an alert if any problems arise. Unika, along with Techne’s existing machines, are attracting customers to the Techne-Graham partnership. Most of Techne’s customers are end users who operate lowervolume operations, he said, adding that Techne is able to help those customers with customizations, like light-weighting and other modifications. At first, customers were hesitant to buy machinery from a competitor, Cargile said. “It is unusual that a blow-molding company would buy a manufacturer and sell to the open market,” he added. “But we think it’s a good fit and the right time for the market.”  http://www.entekextruders.com/casehistories http://www.entekextruders.com http://www.entekextruders.com

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Plastics News Show Daily - April 4, 2012

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