Plastics News reporter Frank Esposito covered the following items from Plastics Encounter Midwest, held June 22-24 in Cleveland.
Capco's new office provides rail access
Resin distributor and recycler Capco Polymer Industries Inc. recently opened a new office and leased part of a facility with rail access in Columbiana, Ohio.
President Doug Green said his firm moved into the 2,500-square-foot office in May. The rail-access site will allow Capco to begin unloading railroad cars of resin in July.
Capco also added two new sales representatives earlier this year and will add two more in August, bringing its total to seven.
Through the first half of 2004, Capco was on track to post sales growth of 20 percent this year. Green said recent growth has been in distributing prime and wide-spec grades of polyethylene, polypropylene and high-impact polystyrene.
Carolina Color adds equipment at 3 sites
Carolina Color Co., a color compounder in Salisbury, N.C., has added five new extrusion lines in North Carolina and Ohio and installed new blending equipment in Texas since early 2003.
In Salisbury, Carolina Color has added two lines, while three new lines are in place at the firm's plant in Delaware, Ohio, President Matt Barr said. The blending equipment was added in Lancaster, Texas. The firm now operates a total of 18 extrusion lines.
Carolina Color also has added rigid PVC and acetal to its product mix this year. Both of those materials are being compounded in Lancaster. The firm is on track to produce 12 million pounds of material this year, a jump of 10-15 percent from 2003, Barr said.
Packaging remains the firm's largest end market, with strong recent growth coming from the building products sector.
Laboratory's on tap for Plastics Group
Plastics Group of America Inc. is opening a new lab in Woonsocket, R.I.,
National sales manager Matt Maskell said the lab is needed to allow the Woonsocket firm to achieve a higher lab rating required to test materials for the automotive market.
Plastics Group compounds, recycles and distributes a range of resins. The firm employs 70 and has production sites in Woonsocket and in Blairsville, Ga.
