news
Trellis Earth acquires Cereplast factory
Trellis Earth has acquired a bioplastics compounding facility in Seymour, Indiana, USA from Cereplast, which is being liquidated in bankruptcy court. It is paying US$2.6 million for the factory, patent portfolio and inventory. Trellis Earth sells cutlery, bags and clamshell packaging made from starch-based bioplastics. It says that it plans to install injection moulding and thermoforming equipment
in the 110,000 ft2 (10,000 m2 )
Seymour plant to “fast track” its production in the USA. Last year the company announced its intention to relocate manufacturing of its products from China to the USA. Trellis CEO Mike Senzaki said: “The acquisition of this factory will enable us to quickly become the pre-emi- nent American supplier of bioplastic food service compostables.”
Cereplast filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February. It reported a loss of US$34.0 million on total sales of US$2.1 million for the nine months to September 2013, when it owed a total of US$121 million. Horizon Technology Finance subsequently succeeded in converting the Chapter 11 filing to a Chapter 7 filing on 24 March, leading to the liquidation of Cereplast. ❙
www.trellisearth.com
Gneuss starts plant expansion The Gneuss management
team mark the start of the expansion project
Extrusion equipment manufac- turer Gneuss is expanding production and administration facilities at its headquarters in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany. It is adding 2,400 m2
of
additional space to meet growing demand for its extruders, melt filtration systems and measurement sensors. The work is schedule to be completed by the end of this year. ❙
www.gneuss.com
Doeflex and Ineos plan PVC merger
Ineos Compounds and Doeflex Compounding are to combine their PVC compounding businesses. Part of the Switzerland- headquartered Ineos Group, Ineos Compounds operates from three locations in the UK, Switzerland and Sweden and produces rigid and flexible PVC com- pounds for construction and medical applications. Doeflex Compounding
claims to be the largest independent PVC com- pounding company in the UK, producing a range of close to 10,000 rigid and flexible PVC compound grades.
The proposed merger
requires clearance from EU competition authorities and both companies will also need to undertake the required employee consultations. Until then, both continue to trade independently. ❙
www.ineos.com ❙
www.doeflex.co.uk
Clariant to increase its Licocene capacity
Clariant is to debottleneck its Licocene production plant in Frankfurt-Höchst, Germany, increasing its capacity by 50%. The expansion is scheduled to be completed by Q1 2016. Licocene metallocene polyolefins
have low molecular weights and are used in masterbatches and engi- neering plastics compounds. Christian Kohlpaintner, member
6 COMPOUNDING WORLD | June 2014
of Clariant’s executive committee, said: “The decision to increase capacity reflects the steady double- digit growth experienced for Licocene Performance Polymers since their launch in 2006. It presents an efficient opportunity to support the current strong rise in demand particularly from China, India, Indonesia and Turkey.” ❙
www.clariant.com
www.compoundingworld.com
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