APC's Cavaney may seek API presidency
WASHINGTON — American Plastics Council President and Chief Executive Officer Red Cavaney said he has talked twice with leaders of the Washington-based American Petroleum Institute about heading that organization.
Cavaney said it is common in Washington for trade association heads to be approached about job openings, but said the API job ``fits the profile'' of what he is interested in: a group that represents a ``focused industrial sector.''
He said API has not made an offer nor has he been told where he sits in the search. API officials declined to comment but said their president, Charles DiBona, is stepping down.
APC and the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., both in Washington, are in merger negotiations that could impact Cavaney's job, and SPI officials have said they hope to know by late September whether those talks will pan out.
Cambridge announces dual acquisitions
MADISON HEIGHTS, MICH. — Cambridge Industries Inc. has completed the dual purchase of the plastics division of Cincinnati-based Eagle-Picher Industries Inc. and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s engineered composites business.
The acquisitions, reported July 7 in Plastics News, had been unconfirmed by Cambridge. According to public documents, Cambridge, based in Madison Heights, Mich., bought Eagle-Picher's three plastics plants for $32.5 million and Goodyear's Jackson, Ohio, plant for $43 million.
Cambridge officials, who announced the buyouts at a July 14 news conference, said they planned no immediate changes at the plants. The facilities make a variety of automotive, industrial, recreational and agricultural parts from sheet molding compounds. The purchases were completed July 10.
The acquisitions perch Cambridge as the largest composites parts supplier to the North American automotive and heavy-truck industries, said Cambridge Chief Executive Officer Richard Crawford. The two divisions together recorded about $134 million in 1996 sales, while Cambridge recorded sales of about $360 million.
AET seeks to purchase film businesses
PEABODY, MASS. — Applied Extrusion Technologies Inc. is continuing to search for acquisitions in the oriented polypropylene films industry, although it recently broke off negotiations with an unnamed firm.
Negotiations stopped after the parties failed to reach mutually agreeable terms. AET Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Anthony Allott said the firm had been discussing possible acquisitions with several parties for about a year.
AET expects a nonoperating charge of $900,000 after taxes in the third quarter in connection with extensive due diligence efforts and other expenditures related to the proposed transaction.
Peabody-based AET reported sales of $233.9 million last year. AET and Mobil Chemical Co.'s films unit in Pittsford, N.Y., are the largest North American manufacturers of OPP films.
Sale of Tooltex to Sonics in the works
DANBURY, CONN. — Ultrasonic welding equipment maker Sonics & Materials Inc. hopes to complete its purchase of automated systems manufacturer Tooltex Inc. by mid-September, company officials said.
Terms were not disclosed. Tooltex, in Grove City, Ohio, has worked as a distributor of Sonics materials for 15 years. The company also makes automated assembly and decorating systems, with a special expertise in ultrasonics.
Both companies declined comment on the deal. Danbury, Conn.-based Sonics makes ultrasonic welding, spin welding and vibration welding equipment. The company does about 70 percent of its $10 million in sales in plastics, said Richard Berger, vice president of marketing for Sonics.
Calif. trash bag bill may get amendments
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — Senate bill 698, dealing with recycled content for trash bags in California, remains in limbo in the Assembly's Natural Resources Committee.
Assemblywoman Debra Bowen, D-Torrance, who chairs the committee, declined to set the bill for a second hearing and, instead, proposed amendments.
Bowen's suggestions are based loosely on how California regulates recycled content in newsprint.
