NEWS Ascend buys Italy’s Poliblend
PA66 producer Ascend Performance Materials has acquired Italian technical compounder Poliblend and colour and colour master- batch producer Esseti Plast, which share a production site at Mozzate, from D’Ottavio Group. The move gives Ascend a second compounding site in Europe — it acquired Tilburg, Nether- lands-based Brittania Techno Polymer (BTP) in 2016. Poliblend produces
technical compounds based predominantly on PA6 and PA66, as well as some POM and PBT-based products and “circular” grades produced from PCR and PIR polymers. It has an annual capacity of around 35,000 tonnes. Esseti Plast produc- es colour masterbatches and has capacity of around 5,000 tonnes. An attraction for Ascend
is Poliblend’s diverse customer base, according to Ascend President and CEO Phil McDivitt. “We have traditionally been a very
Ascend has acquired the Poliblend/Esseti Plast facility at Mozzate in Italy
toll-compounded some 15,000 tonnes of material annually for Ascend prior to its acquisition, the PA66 specialist has no previous relationship with Poliblend. And, while it has converted the BTP operation to a near 100% Ascend production facility, it plans to continue to service Poliblend and Esseti Plast’s customers. “I would expect that in
auto-centric engineering plastics business – the [Poliblend] business has some component of automotive but a large component of non-auto,” he said. “We see, with the way the world is moving in terms of e-mobility and different types of materials, the extensive colour capabilility at Esseti Plast and Poliblend being a strategically important part of the acquisition for us and something we can leverage on a global basis.” Access to Poliblend’s
expertise in PA6 and recycled compounds is also a big
attraction. “At the K fair we announced the development of our long chain polyamide business and our develop- ment of high temperature nylons…that’s where we are driving towards,” said McDivitt. “Our own internal developments on higher value grades like 610 and 612 and high temperature nylons will fill out part of that portfolio. We see Poliblend giving us the ability to fill out some gaps that we have in terms of non-auto, colours, recycled grades and give us the ability to offer nylon 6 as well.”
Unlike BTP, which had
Europe, between BTP and Poliplast, we would be completely self-sufficient. Then, what we would also look to with Poliblend from a capability standpoint, is translating that capability into our US operations,” McDivitt said. “We are in the process of adding some additional capacity at Foley [in Alabama], which we think the capabilities of Poliblend would match up nicely with.” Poliblend President Giancarlo D’Ottavio will join Ascend’s European Man- agement team. �
www.ascendmaterials.com �
www.poliblend.it
Montefibre invests €16.5m in carbon fibre operation
Montefibre Carbon is investing €16.5m at its carbon fibre precursor production plant at Miranda de Ebro in Spain to produce polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor for conversion to semi-aerospace quality carbon fibre. The investment, which includes €11.5m from the Spanish Ministry of Industry, will also include a high performance 100 tonnes/yr carbonisation line. That will be operational by the end of 2021 and will be the first owned by a Spanish company. With a 40-year history in speciality acrylic textiles, Montefibre is in the process
of adapting four of its seven spinning lines to produce some 17,000 tonnes/yr of large-tow PAN. First quantities of its M500 and M600 grades will reach the market in 2020. The company said the carbonisation investment will make it Europe’s third
largest producer of carbon fibre, behind SGL of Germany and Solvay in Belgium. �
www.montefibrecarbon.com
www.compoundingworld.com March 2020 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 5
IMAGE: POLIBLEND
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