NEWS
NEWS IN BRIEF...
Bain Capital Private Equity is to buy Italy’s Italmatch Chemicals from current private equity owner Ardian, which has owned the specialty chemical additives business since 2014. Italmatch, which generates sales of around €400m, manufactures additives for a wide range of industries. Its plastics additive activity includes phosphorous and melamine based flame retardants and slip agents. �
www.italmatch.com �
www.baincapital.com
Italian firm Bio-On has opened its first production plant for its specialty polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) bioplastics at Castel San Pietro Terme, near Bologna in Italy. A total of €20m has been invested in the 3,700m2
plant, which
will use agricultural waste, including molasses and sugar cane and sugar beet syrups, as feedstocks and has a capacity of 1,000 tonnes/year. It is targeting specialty markets such as biodegradable microbeads for the cosmetics sector. �
www.bio-on.it/
Apax Partners is to sell chemical distributor Azelis to two other private equity firms, EQT VIII fund and PSP Investments. Subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions, the deal should close in Q4. During Apax’s ownership, Azelis has grown considerably, making nine acquisitions. �
www.azelis.com
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Clariant moves ahead with projects in China
Clariant has moved forward with two production sites in China. On successive days in June, the company officially opened two fully-owned additive facilities for plastics, coatings and inks at its site in the Zhenjiang Economic and Technological Develop- ment Zone and conducted a ground-breaking ceremony at the Cangzhou National Coastal-Port Economy & Technology Development Zone, just over 200 km south of Beijing, for where it is building a plastics and
textile stabilisers joint venture facility. The Zhenjiang invest-
ment, originally announced in 2017, is dedicated to producing Ceridust micron- ised waxes and AddWorks synergistic additives. Clariant is already supplying these in China but said that additional local production capacity will allow it “to provide more tailored solutions at shortened lead times”. The Cangzhou invest- ment is part of a joint venture with Beijing
Tiangang Auxiliary that was set up in September 2017. This focuses on process and light stabilisers for various industries, including automotive and textiles. Clariant already supplies these in China, while its partner is a major local manufacturer of light stabilisers and UV absorbers with two plants that are back-integrated into key intermediates. The new Cangzhou facility will come onstream in 1H 2019. �
www.clariant.com
Euromap elects new officers; marks €15.3bn sales record
Euromap, the European trade group for manufactur- ers of plastics and rubber machinery, held its general assembly on 15 June 2018 in Linz. Luciano Anceschi of Italy’s Tria was elected as new President, with Michael Baumeister, of Brückner Maschinenbau as Vice-Presi- dent and Thorsten Kühmann of the German member association, VDMA, as Secretary-General. Euromap members
marked a record year in 2017, with sales up more than 7% to €15.3bn. The association said order books remain full in 2018, with “no end of the growth in sight”. It expects a growth rate of 2% for European machinery makers, although it added
COMPOUNDING WORLD | July 2018
Euromap’s newly elected officers (from left): Brückner Maschinenbau’s Michael Baumeister (Vice President), VDMA’s Thorsten Kühmann (Secretary General), and Tria’s Luciano Anceschi, (President)
that the ongoing boom is bringing challenges in the shape of long delivery times and skill shortages. “The close collaboration
on a European level is extremely important for the
manufacturers of plastics and rubber machinery when it comes to central topics like Industry 4.0 or Circular Economy,” said Anceschi in a statement. �
www.euromap.org
www.compoundingworld.com
PHOTO: EUROMAP/VDMA
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