Plastics News staff reporter Frank Esposito covered the following items from Thermoplastic Concentrates 2004, held Feb. 11-13 in New Orleans.
Plasticoncentrates to hike staff by four
Plasticoncentrates Inc. plans to grow its staff by four employees in the next six months.
The firm wants to hire two lab employees and two shop floor workers to handle growing demand for its products, according to Ed Tucker, president of the Chester, Pa.-based specialty compounder.
Plasticoncentrates also may add an extrusion line in late 2004 or early 2005, Tucker said.
The firm said it expects to post sales of $1.5 million this year. About 80 percent of the company's compounds are based on nylon.
Accel relocates plant,
expands at another
Accel Color Corp. said it will complete its move to a larger site in Ontario, Calif., by the end of March.
Avon, Ohio-based Accel acquired Polytech in December and began moving the business from a 7,000-square-foot Ontario location to a 25,000-square-foot site there. The move will create five new jobs, according to Accel Chief Executive Officer Dwight Morgan.
The color concentrates maker also recently launched its fifth extrusion line at its Manchester, Tenn., site.
Global TiO2 growth
could hit 7 percent
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) sales into global plastics markets are expected to grow at a rate of 6-7 percent each year through 2008.
In North America, those rates will be only 2-3.5 percent, while in Asia, annual growth of more than 10 percent is expected, according to Kevin Leary, global plastics manager for DuPont Co.'s TiO2 business in Wilmington, Del.
Polyolefins also are expected to remain the largest plastics consumption segment for TiO2, followed by PVC, Leary said.
Overall, plastics account for about 20 percent of the global TiO2 market.
DuPont's major North American TiO2 production sites are in New Johnsonville, Tenn., and Delisle, Miss.
