Dutch unit to cost Tenneco $375 million
EVANSTON, ILL. — Tenneco Inc. is investing $375 million for its packaging division's purchase of the protective and flexible packaging unit of NV Koninklijke KNP BT, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The deal, which will more than double Evanston-based Tenneco Packaging's sales in Europe, is set to close in April.
Koninklijke's protective packaging business has operations in Europe and North America; the flexible packaging business has operations in Europe. The units had combined sales of $542 million last year and employ 3,000.
The purchase will add air-cushion plastic packaging, polyethylene foam sheets and planks, padded mailers, plastic packaging for detergents and medical packaging to Tenneco's lineup.
Tenneco, based in Greenwich, Conn., is a $7 billion company.
Phillips mulls Chinese PE pipe venture
BARTLESVILLE, OKLA. — Phillips Petroleum Co. of Bartlesville on March 25 announced it signed a letter of intent for a joint venture to make polyethylene pipe in China.
The agreement, with Shanghai Petrochemical Co. Ltd. of Shanghai, China, calls for the companies to study the feasibility of a plant in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai using proprietary Phillips technology. Phillips and SPC each would hold a 50 percent interest in the plant.
The plant initially would have capacity of 24 million pounds a year, possibly increasing to 44 million pounds, depending on market conditions. Markets would include industrial, municipal water and gas service applications in China and the Pacific Rim.
Phillips already is working with SPC on a joint venture high density PE resin plant in Shanghai, which when completed in 1998, will produce 220 million pounds of PE annually.
The firm's Phillips Driscopipe Inc. unit in Richardson, Texas, extrudes more than 200 million pounds of PE pipe annually. Plastics News ranked it as the 10th-largest pipe maker in North America with estimated 1995 sales of $143 million.
Phillips Petroleum reported 1996 sales of $16 billion. SPC had sales of about $1.47 billion in 1995.
Dow, BASF delay PS resin price hikes
AKRON, OHIO — Dow Chemical Co. and BASF Corp. said March 20 they will implement temporary voluntary allowances, indefinitely delaying the 3 cent-per-pound polystyrene price increases they each announced in early February.
Separately, Dow also said March 20 it will raise prices for its ABS resins by 5 cents per pound, styrene acrylonitrile by 4 cents and polycarbonate by 2 cents per pound, effective April 15.
Both Dow and BASF told their customers current market conditions do not support a PS price hike at this time.
``Competitive market conditions have led to fragmentation in the marketplace regarding the implementation of the announced polystyrene price increase,'' Bob Koaches, senior product manager for Dow's Styron PS resins, said in a prepared statement.
Summa, Calnetics closing in on merger
TORRANCE, CALIF. — Summa Industries of Torrance and Calnetics Corp. of Chatsworth, Calif., said March 26 they have reached a definitive agreement on plans to merge. Closing is subject to several conditions, including approval of both firms' shareholders at separate meetings expected in June.
The two holding companies own subsidiaries that manufacture plastics components for industrial and commercial applications, and together have annual sales of more than $84 million. The firms announced Feb. 14 they had signed a letter of intent.
Clear View acquires N.C. bag maker
ALBANY, N.Y. — Converter Clear View Bag Co. bought Dillard Plastics on March 21 to expand its bag production into the southeast United States.
Clear View of Albany plans to upgrade an acquired bag converter and add printing equipment at Dillard's Thomasville, N.C., facility, said Clear View President Bill Romer.
Dillard's sales were about $5 million a year; Clear View's sales are $8 million to $9 million, he said. Neither firm extrudes film.
Clear View will expand Thomasville's product line — which has focused on lightweight bags for textiles — to include more industrial bags, Clear View's main business. He expects to keep most of the plant's 57 employees.
Dillard was a division of ResourceNet International, a subsidiary of International Paper Co. of Purchase, N.Y.