CHICAGO (July 18, 2:40 p.m. EDT) — DuPont Canada Inc. is handling marketing and distribution of Ferro Corp.´s polypropylene and thermoplastic elastomer compounds in Canada.
"We see polypropylene competing at the lower end of the engineering resins spectrum," said Chul Lee, DuPont Canada´s new business manager. "It competes with nylon in some automotive areas like hood air cleaners, but not as much as you would think."
"The beauty is the commonality in applications," added John Comanita, Ferro´s worldwide business director for specialty plastics. "The Canadian market is one-tenth the size of the U.S. market, but it´s not small potatoes. There are a lot of opportunities for crossover between polypropylene and nylon."
DuPont Canada is an independent company majority owned by Dupont of Wilmington, Del. The Missisauga, Ontario-based firm markets DuPont´s entire line of nylon, polybutylene terephthalate and PET products and operates its own nylon compounding facility in Brockville, Ont.
DuPont Canada stock is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The firm posted sales of $1.4 billion in 1999.