Up-and-down financial results at public companies with plastics businesses are featured in this week’s Material Insights video. Huntsman and Ferro each saw plastic-related sales and profit gains in the first half of 2012. Kraton saw higher sales but lower profits. Dow, DuPont, Eastman and Celanese saw plastic-related declines in both of those areas, due in part to a slow global economic recovery and challenging feedstock conditions. A private equity investment into plastics technology firm Polyflow also is featured in this week’s video. Ambassador Enterprises of Fort Wayne, Ind., has invested almost $2 million into Polyflow, which is based in Akron, Ohio. The investment will allow Polyflow to build its first commercial plastic waste-to-fuel plant in Perry, Ohio. The video wraps up with news of a new compounding plant for Toray Plastics in China and of a state grant for U.S. biocomposites developer MCG BioComposites. Toray will spend almost $13 million to build a 24 million-pound-capacity plant in Chengdu, China. MCG will use a grant of more than $40,000 from the state of Iowa to develop its BioMarker-brand plant marker and to develop new formulations for biocomposite materials.
An explosion at La. olefins plant leaves 2 dead, 76 injured
June 17, 2013 1:17 pm ET
