Bayer AG has taken another step to boost its place in the polycarbonate sheet market with the acquisition of Australian plastics sheet producer Laserlite Pty. Ltd. of Melbourne.
Bayer of Leverkusen, Germany, bought the rigid PC and PVC sheet maker from PT Impack Pratama of Jakarta, Indonesia. Terms were not disclosed.
Laserlite has ``a significant share'' of the Australian plastics sheet market, as the country's only major manufacturer of PC sheet, said a Bayer spokesman. Bayer did not disclose Laserlite's sheet capacity, but said the Australian market consumes more than 11 million pounds of material per year.
The Melbourne firm increased its annual sales 19.5 percent last year to reach A$28.5 million (US$18 million), according to Bayer.
Bayer said the takeover in Australia is part of a plan to expand its business in the country and New Zealand.
The deal is the second involving PC sheet that Bayer announced this year. In February, it said it was entering the U.S. PC and PET sheet market by buying the global transparent plastic sheet business of DSM NV of Heerlen, Netherlands.
That deal included DSM Sheffield Plastics, which operates two sheet extrusion plants in Sheffield, Mass.; and Axxis NV, which operates one plant in Tielt, Belgium. Those plants employ about 300; their annual sales total $135.5 million.