CNC Containers expands at four plants TUMWATER, WASH. — CNC Containers Corp. has boosted PET container capacity at its four Western plants.
The Tumwater-based firm added nine new blow molding machines during the past three months, according to Dean Hebb, vice president of sales and marketing.
The machines have eight- to 20-cavity molds and include standard, two-step blow molding models and ones for heat-set molding. Hebb said the machines are Sidel and Krupp models and have a total of 106 cavities. CNC also installed four Husky injection molding presses to boost its PET preform capacity. Hebb did not disclose the cost of the new machinery. The firm now runs more than 40 blow molding machines at plants in Tumwater; Tucson, Ariz.; and Commerce and Lathrop, Calif.
Hebb said the project was spurred by new business and general growth in the company's markets, which include carbonated beverages, water, dairy products, liquor, hot-fill juices and specialty foods. CNC exclusively processes PET, selling containers and preforms. The firm had estimated sales of $113 million in 1998.
Plastics Engineering to buy Plaslok
SHEBOYGAN, WIS. — Plastics Engineering Co. plans to expand its thermoset compounds business by acquiring assets and technology from Plaslok Corp. of Buffalo, N.Y.
Plastics Engineering will enter production of bulk molding compounds as a result of the deal and expand in phenolic molding compounds, according to the firm's secretary and general counsel, Jeffrey Mohr. The firms did not disclose terms of the deal.
Sheboygan-based Plastics Engineering will get equipment, formulations and trademarks from Plaslok. Production will continue at Plaslok's facility while Plastics Engineering gains experience in the technologies. Mohr said the transition period could be as short as a few months or as long as a year and is designed to ensure uninterrupted customer service. Eventually, equipment from Buffalo will be moved to Sheboygan.
Plaslok and Plastics Engineering compete in similar phenolic compound markets such as appliances, cookware, automotive and electrical products. Plaslok's trade names include Plaslok phenolic compounds and Plas*Glas bulk molding compounds. Plastics Engineering's main product line is Plenco phenolic compounds.
Mohr said privately held Plastics Engineering does not reveal sales figures, but he said his firm is larger than Plaslok, which employs about 45.
Finland chemical industry strike ends
PORVOO, FINLAND — Finland's chemical industry strike, which disrupted production at the Borealis A/S polymers complex in Porvoo, ended March 23, one week after it began.
The site's two polyethylene plants, as well as the olefins cracker and phenol and aromatics plants, all were in full operation again by March 27. The shutdown, resulting from a walkout by 500 workers, cost the firm about 30 million Finnish markkaa ($4.8 million), according to Lyngby, Denmark-based Borealis.
The nationwide stoppage, called after a breakdown in collective pay bargaining talks between the Finnish Chemical Industry Federation and the Chemical Industry Workers Union, ended when the parties reached a new industry agreement.
Ky. bottle-bill referendum looks dead
FRANKFORT, KY. — The push for a referendum on a bottle bill in Kentucky appears dead, after the state Legislature adjourned March 29 without considering it.
Kentucky's House earlier had passed a bill calling for a referendum, but it stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. An aide to its House sponsor, Rep. Greg Stumbo, blamed partisan politics and said the bottle bill was caught in a fight between the two chambers over larger issues like the state's budget and the tobacco settlement.
"He feels it was a victim of fighting between the House and Senate," said Stumbo aide Barbara Rhoads.
The bottle bill most likely will not be considered again until the Legislature's 2002 session.
The push for a bottle-bill referendum also met opposition from some legislators who felt it was not appropriate to amend the state's constitution on policy issues, as the referendum would have done. The referendum was the second effort bottle bill supporters made this year. Legislation that would have enacted a bottle bill died in the House earlier in the session.