NEWS


ARX buys Promens Zlin


Private equity firm ARX Equity Partners has acquired Promens Zlin from Berry Global, subject to customary closing conditions. As part of the investment, ARX has agreed to work with the existing manage- ment team, who will continue to lead its development. Based at Zlin, Czech


Republic, Promens Zlin is a Tier One systems and development supplier. It focuses mainly on large exterior and interior parts for buses, earth moving vehicles and agricultural equipment, and its main technical expertise lies in reaction injection moulding and vacuum forming. Promens Zlin added


that it is currently undergoing a “substan- tial” capital expenditure programme to expand and modernise its facility, in order to meet growing demand. In the last fiscal year, it had sales of about €37m. � www.promenszlin.cz


Polykemi to invest €10m to manufacture in US


Polykemi is to invest close to €10m to set up its first production plant in the US. The plant, which will be located at Gastonia in North Carolina, will start up in 2022 and will be the Swedish compounder’s largest ever single investment. The company has been active in the US market since 2013 working with toll compounding partners but the long term plan has always been to have its own production capacity. “The whole time, our goal has been to start up production in the US, and we have now reached that milestone. The new plant is geographically close to our existing customers, which gives us a clearer presence and even stronger customer relation-


Above: Polykemi’s planned US production site is its largest ever investment


ships,” said Johan Hugoson, CEO of the US business. The new facility will initially cover 4,600m2


but


the site will allow expansion to 9,200m2


. It will start


production with two produc- tion lines — 75mm and 90mm — ramping up to a full complement of six. The intention is to produce virtually all the compounds


it currently manufactures at its sites at Ystad in Sweden and Kunshan in China. “This is an investment in the future and lays the ground for Polykemi Group’s future growth,” said Hugoson. Polykemi Group recorded


sales of around €140m for 2019 and had a capacity of around 65,000 tonnes. � www.polykemi.se


Arkema’s new PA 11 site on track


Arkema still expects to start up production of Rilsan PA 11 at its Jurong Island facility, Singapore, on schedule in the first half of 2022 after overcoming Covid-related difficulties.


The material, derived from castor bean oil, will increase the firm’s global PA 11 capacity by 50%. The company added that this will be the biggest integrated biofactory in the


world to be dedicated to high performance polymers. The total investment, including downstream polymer capacities in China, will be about €450m. � www.arkema.com


Landmark expansion for Evco in Georgia USA


With the purchase of a new 3,700 m2 facility near its existing CAL 1 site at Calhoun, Georgia, US custom injection moulder Evco Plastics will bring the total space at its ten plants worldwide to over 1m ft² (930,000 m²). The new facility, known as CAL 2, will begin operations in the autumn. It is food-grade compliant and includes


10 INJECTION WORLD | May 2021


white room and LSR moulding capa- bilities for medical and commercial lighting applications. CAL 2 has room for 20 injection moulding machines up to 500 tonnes, plus a separate room for new LSR machines. Other features include: two bridge cranes for setting moulds in presses; four material silos; a 2,000 m²


white room; a 195 m² LSR production room; 67 m² metrology room; and highly automated lights-out production. Evco is also adding 1,200 m² of extra space to its headquarters AMP facility at DeForest, Wisconsin, providing room for machines and larger amounts of raw materials and finished goods. � www.evcoplastics.com


www.injectionworld.com


IMAGE: POLYKEMI


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50