NEWS


Growing in carbon black


Birla Carbon and Orion Engineered Carbons have separately announced major expansions in carbon black production capacity. Birla Carbon will add a


further 200,000 tonnes/yr of capacity for applications in plastics, rubber and other speciality markets, including 80,000 tonnes/yr at plants in China and India and a further 40,000 tonnes in Hungary. All are expect- ed to be complete in 2024. The company said it will continue to evaluate additional expansions in various geographies. Meanwhile, Orion


Engineered Carbons said it will complete its gas black expansion at its plants in Dortmund and Cologne in Germany by early 2023. Gas blacks are known for their dispersion and colour characteristics and Orion claims to be the only carbon black produc- er active in them. �www.birlacarbon.com �www.orioncarbons.com


China tops global machine exports


Global production of plastics and rubber machinery 2016-2021 by value and country share


Year 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021


World Production* (m €)


34,948 36,312 36,795 35,971 34,193 38,597


Shares of particular countries (%)


EU27+UK China Germany Italy USA Japan 40.8 42.0 42.3 43.9 40.9 40.0


32.3 30.6 31.1 31.1 34.4 35.0


Source: VDMA / Federal Statistical Office *Estimate


China exported more plastics and rubber machin- ery than any other country in the world for the first time last year, according to preliminary figures released by Euromap, the umbrella organisation of major European plastics machinery manufacturers. During 2021, global


production of plastics and rubber machinery is estimat- ed to have grown by 13% to a record €38.6bn. Exports totalled €23.7bn, near match- ing the industry’s previous record result of 2017. China’s


share of plastics machinery exports increased its by 28.2% to €5.7bn, leaving long-time export leader Germany in second place with €5.2bn (up by 9.4%). “In the medium term, companies in Europe will have to prepare themselves for a significantly higher price level, as raw materials and energy in particular, have become much more expensive,” said Euromap President Luciano Anceschi. Germany’s VDMA plastics and machinery association said member order books


remain reasonably well filled but, due to supply chain issues resulting from Covid lockdowns, and now the war in Ukraine, it is becoming increasingly difficult to convert orders into turnover. “In the first four months


of the current year, new orders fell 17% short of those of the same period last year,” said Thorsten Kühmann, Managing Director of the association. “Availability of supplier parts is the predominant issue.” �www.euromap.org �www.vdma.org


Uponor debuts ‘renewable’ PEX pipe


Below: Uponor’s PEX Pipe Blue uses Borenewables PE from Borealis


Uponor claims its PEX Pipe Blue is the first cross-linked PE pipe to be based on renewable feedstock accredited by third-party mass balance under the ISCC Plus scheme.


The pipe is made


from Borealis Bore- newables PE from feedstocks including second-generation


natural resources such as waste from 8 COMPOUNDING WORLD | July 2022


pulp production or residues from food processing (mass balance). Borealis claims its Borenewables can deliver a 90% reduction in carbon footprint reduction when compared to conventional fossil-based PE-X pipes (based on Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) calculations according to EN15804+A1 and CML/ISO21930). �www.uponor.com �www.borealisgroup.com


www.compoundingworld.com


21.3 21.3 21.5 21.7 20.4 19.6


7.7 8.1 7.8 7.8 7.0 7.1


7.0 7.1 7.1 6.6 7.0 6.7


4.7 4.7 3.9 4.6 4.1 4.1


IMAGE: UPONOR


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