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Teknor Apex sells UK assets to Petlon Polymers following fire
US-headquartered Teknor Apex has sold the Beetle engineering thermoplastic (ETP) brand, certain assets and related customer lists to Petlon Polymers, an engineer- ing polymers compounder and plastics recycler based at Lydney in the UK. The deal, which is expected to be finalised by the end of September, follows the fire which destroyed Teknor Apex’s UK compounding plant at Oldbury on 29 April. Teknor Apex has decided
not to rebuild the Oldbury compounding facility which processed engineering thermoplastics (ETPs) and thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs). Petlon has already been manufacturing certain grades on a toll basis to supply Teknor Apex’s European customers since the fire. Petlon’s CEO Trent Ward said: “The addition of the acquired product technology will strengthen our position as the largest independent compounder of ETPs in the UK
compounds and styrenic TPEs in Europe, Murray added. As part of the deal, nine
Fire destroyed Teknor Apex’s Oldbury compounding plant in April (photo: West Midlands Fire Service)
and will expand our portfolio of product offerings at the high-performance end.” William Murray, president
of Teknor Apex, said: “While Teknor Apex is well positioned to supply nylon and TPEs in Europe and throughout the world, we determined that we could not serve some ETP accounts at a level of service that their business required”. He added that the accounts being given up represent a small part of the company’s global PA business. They also
include some in engineering- grade PET. The company said that it
will continue to supply its Chemlon range of PA com- pounds worldwide from plants in the US and Singapore. It continues to make thermo- plastic vulcanisate compounds for the European market from Genk in Belgium and also distributes styrenic TPEs from there, supported by a sales office in the Netherlands. In the longer term, it plans to make both Chemlon PA
Teknor Apex staff from Oldbury, about 25% of the total, will transfer to Petlon, which is 114 km away. They include Mark Clayton, UK director, who has now been named managing director at Petlon, and Steve Dunn, European sales and marketing director in the ETP division, who will become Petlon’s sales director. Gavin Rees, Petlon’s managing director for the past eight years, will step down to focus on other business activities but will remain with the firm as technical director. In order to continue
manufacturing these products, Petlon will make an unspeci- fied but “substantial” invest- ment, increasing production from the current 10,000-13,000 tonnes/year to more than 20,000. This will also create some new jobs at the plant, according to the company. ❙
www.petlonpolymers.co.uk ❙
www.teknorapex.com
Plastics export hub planned for Dallas
A&R Logistics of Louisville, Kentucky, USA, has concluded a collaboration agreement with US railroad operator Union Pacific to co-develop a transportation and plastics packaging facility near UP’s Dallas Intermodal Terminal. The facility is designed to handle an expected surge in plastic resin exports over the coming decade. A&R CEO Mark Holden commented that the US plastics industry is
expected to invest some US$50 billion over the next decade to expand production on the back of cheaper feedstocks from natural gas derived from domestic shale. Consequently, net exports are expected to grow from US$6.5 billion in 2014 to US$21.5 billion by 2030. ❙
www.ardoingitright.com ❙
www.up.com
www.compoundingworld.com August 2015 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 5
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