SAO PAULO, BRAZIL — Sonoco Products Co. has formed a joint venture with Brazilian molder Industria e Comercio de Embalagens For-Plas Ltda. involving a plant that makes plastic ends for cardboard packaging tubes.
The Hartsville, S.C.-based firm acquired for an undisclosed amount 51 percent of For-Plas' unit in Araras, Brazil, near Sao Paulo.
The deal created a company called Sonoco For-Plas Industria e Comercio de Embalagens SA, headquartered in Araras. Naim Bayeh, who founded the original For-Plas in 1972 in Sao Paulo, holds the remaining 49 percent stake in the new joint venture, of which he is executive director. The Brazilian parent company now makes its headquarters in Diadema.
Currently, the unit is equipped to produce 340 million plastic caps annually but works at 60 percent of its capacity. The Araras facility began operations in 1994 and is capable of processing 1.32 million pounds per year of resins such as polypropylene, polystyrene and PVC, as well as high, low and linear low density polyethylene.
The plant uses 45 injection molding machines — Battenfeld, Sandretto, Romi and Oriente models — with 100-750 tons of clamping force.
