NEWS IN BRIEF...
Domo Chemicals has appointed Bamberger Polymers to distribute its North American product portfolio, including its Domamid, Econamid and Domonyl Nylon 6 and 66 compounds. Domo produces a number of products exclusively for the US market at its plant at Buford in Georgia.
www.domochemicals.com
www.bambergerpolymers.com
BASF, SABIC and Linde have signed a joint agreement to develop and demonstrate electrically heated steam cracker furnaces. Replacing fossil fuels with electricity from renewable sources is said to hold the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90%. The develop- ment partners are evaluat- ing construction of a demonstration plant at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site in Germany for startup as early as 2023.
www.basf.com
www.sabic.com
www.linde.com
Former Lucent execs jailed in US for fraud
Two former senior executives of US-based compounder Lucent Polymers – Kevin Kuhnash and Jason Jimerson – were sentenced to jail terms in March after plead- ing guilty last year in court in Indiana, US, to fraud and money laundering relating to the sale of the company to PE firm HGGC in 2013. Kuhnash and Jimerson
admitted concealing defects in the Lucent business related to falsification of quality testing. These issues were only exposed in 2016 following the sale of the plants to A Schulman, now part of LyondellBasell. Schulman estimated at the
time a potential sales loss of around $20m. Former Lucent CEO
Kuhnash was sentenced to a jail term of 36-months followed by one-year of supervised release. He must also pay a $10,000 fine. Former COO Jimersen was sentenced to a jail term of 24-months, two-years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine. According to the US
Department of Justice, the two executives received around $1.4m and $0.6m respectively from the $64m sale of the business to HGGC in 2013. The value of Schulman’s shares fell by
more than $175m on the day the fraud was disclosed to investors in 2016. “These two men knew of
the fraudulent practices at the company they led but chose to let it continue out of sheer greed, going even further by remaining silent as the company was sold for the sole purpose of enrich- ing themselves,” said FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Paul Keenan. “This case demonstrates
the strong partnerships the FBI has and the diligent work of all involved to combat significant fraud schemes such as this,” he said in a statement.
Victrex investing in Shanghai
Victrex is investing $1m in a “significant expansion” of its Asia Innovation & Technol- ogy Centre (AITC) at Shanghai, China, as part of plans to accelerate innova-
tion and speed develop- ment times for prototypes and evaluation. The UK-based company opened the AITC in 2006 as a 2,000 m2
technical centre Indian JV targets bioplastics
SKYi FKuR Biopolymers, a new joint venture between Germany’s FKuR Kunststoff and India’s SKYi Innovations, has commenced production of biode- gradable, partially-biobased plastics at Chakan in India. The facility operates a three-shift compounding line, which will produce a significant part of FKuR’s Bio-Flex range for the Indian and regional markets. It is claimed to be the first dedicated manufacturer of compostable biopoly- mer compounds in India. The Bio-Flex family comprises fully
6 COMPOUNDING WORLD | April 2021
biodegradable and compostable (according to EN 13432) grades. They are based entirely or partly on natural raw materials and are suitable for production of flexible films, as well as thermoformed and injection moulded parts. SKYi Innovations has distributed FKuR
products in India for around 10 years. The company is well established in the Indian compounding industry and claims to operate the country’s largest LFT production facility. �
www.fkur.com �
www.skyi.in
www.compoundingworld.com
of excellence for users of its PEEK-based advanced engineering plastics in the automotive and aerospace sectors. �
www.victrex.com
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