TORONTO - Samuel Manu-Tech Inc. decided to locate its first PET strapping plant in Fort Mill, S.C., near Charlotte, N.C. The Toronto firm indicated earlier this year plans to extrude PET strapping when it bought Wilton Packaging Products, a Winchester, Tenn.-based extruder of polypropylene strapping and detergent box handles.
The firm will install two Sima strapping extrusion lines sourced from Italy at the Fort Mill site, where it will begin leasing 97,200 square feet in June, according to Don Eckhart, the firm's vice president of operations. He said the firm plans to invest $20 million at Fort Mill over several years.
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Huntsman doubling PP resin capacity
SALT LAKE CIT, - Huntsman Corp. plans to add nearly 1 billion pounds of polypropylene capacity by 2000.
The company will boost PP capacity by 925 million pounds, primarily by debottlenecking and modernizing production lines at plants in Longview, Texas; Woodbury, N.J.; and Marysville, Mich., according to spokesman Don Olsen. The company currently produces 1.2 billion pounds of PP at those sites.
Olsen would not disclose expansion costs.
In 1997 Huntsman will begin phasing in the new capacity, beginning with the first 240 million pounds, and bringing on 200 million, 260 million and 225 million pounds, respectively, in the following three years, the company said May 23.
Huntsman Corp., headquartered in Salt Lake City, has total sales of $4.3 billion.
Crown Cork, Sidel to blow metal
PHILADELPHIA - Container giant Crown Cork & Seal Co. Inc. is combining its experience in metal cans and plastic bottles to create a unique product: blow molded metal cans.
The Philadelphia-based company announced May 20 it had entered a technology agreement with Paris-based blow molding machinery maker Groupe Sidel under which Sidel will develop machines for blow molding soft drink and other cans.
Jean-Guy Delage, president of Doraville, Ga.-based Sidel Inc., the North American arm of the French machine maker, said the proprietary technology, developed by Crown Cork, is similar to the injection blow molding process. Cans produced in the process could be ``shaped'' or ``contour'' containers.
AutoStyle closing, blames market shift
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. - AutoStyle Plastics Inc., a molder of reaction injection molded bumper fascia for the automotive industry, said last week it will cease operations this summer, putting 700 people out of work.
William Pries, vice president of human resources, told The Grand Rapids Press that the company plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. AutoStyle, headquartered in Grand Rapids, had been on the block for several months but couldn't find a buyer.
Pries said AutoStyle's financial problems were related to a shift from RIM bumper covers to injection-molded thermoplastic. The company added 125,000 square feet at its plant in Grand Rapids last fall and installed injection molding machinery but couldn't make the transition to thermoplastics fast enough.
AutoStyle had sales of more than $55 million last year, far below its historic peak of $115 million. The company is affiliated with MascoTech Inc. of Taylor, Mich.
Government probes furnace vent pipes
WASHINGTON - Faulty gas furnace vent pipes made of plastic are the focus of a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission investigation.
The probe, announced recently by CPSC in Washington, means what had largely been a Canadian issue is spreading to the United States, where public concern about safety of furnaces and water heaters is high because of new reports about deaths by carbon-monoxide poisoning.
In the heating and air conditioning trade, the system is known as HTPV, for ``high temperature plastic vent.'' The government investigation centers on pipe, fittings and sealant and adhesives.
The Canadian goverment last September ordered the replacement of all heating systems using Ultravent, Sel-Vent and Plexvent vents.
