O-I closing Ind. health-care bottle plant
TOLEDO, OHIO - Owens-Illinois Inc. is closing one of its remaining plastics operations to cut costs.
The Toledo-based firm said April 27 is shutting its Sullivan, Ind., facility, a 63,000-square-foot operation that makes bottles for the health-care industry. Production is being phased out beginning the first week of May through the end of the third quarter. The plant employs 63.
O-I spokeswoman Sara Theis said the Sullivan site blow molds high density polyethylene bottles. Officials will compare the capabilities of O-I HealthCare Packaging's eight other facilities before deciding where to relocate production.
After O-I sold its blow molded container business last year to Graham Packaging Co. LP, Vincent Sami, vice president of manufacturing for O-I HealthCare Packaging, said, ``We have concluded that we can consolidate operations and transfer capacity to our other facilities'' without affecting service.
UPG shutting Texas auto-parts factory
WESTMONT, ILL. - Injection molder United Plastics Group Inc. intends to close its leased plant in El Paso, Texas, by the end of June, affecting 90 employees.
The plant mainly serves the automotive market, but also does consumer-product and electrical work, William Featherstone, vice president of sales and marketing, said by telephone.
UPG obtained the 62,500-square-foot El Paso facility in its 2000 acquisition of SPM injection molding operations from Dynacast International Ltd. The plant has 37 presses with clamping forces of 35-500 tons. Work will be transferred to other plants.
Westmont-based UPG reported 2004 sales of $200 million.
Entec buys into resin distributor NAG
ORLANDO, FLA. - Entec Polymers LLC has purchased a minority interest in North America Group Inc., another sign that the pace of consolidation may be picking up in the North American resin distribution market.
The size and amount of the purchase was not disclosed.
James Duffy, president of Newton, Mass.-based NAG, has combined six resin distribution firms under the NAG umbrella since early 2003. The firm expects to post total sales of $380 million this year. NAG distributes a range of commodity resins in North, Central and South America.
The purchase is Entec's first since it acquired West Coast Polymers in early 2003. Entec, which primarily distributes engineering resins, operates major warehouses in Barberton, Ohio, and Plainfield, Ill., and uses 16 public warehouses nationwide.
The 20-year-old Orlando-based firm employs 375 and has compounding plants in Manchester, Tenn., and Hempstead, Texas. Entec sales are expected to hit $450 million in 2005.
Lobbying firm wins contract to run APR
ARLINGTON, VA. - As expected, the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers has hired Washington-based lobbying firm CMR Group to run the organization.
CMR, led by President and founder Steve Alexander, will take over soon, probably in early May. APR's current director, Robin Cotchan, will stay through the end of the year, Saunders said.
DuPont shareholders reject disclosure
WILMINGTON, DEL. - Shareholders at DuPont Co. defeated a proposal April 27 to have the company account more thoroughly for costs from a controversial chemical used to make Teflon.
However, advocates for more disclosure claimed victory because they won 8.7 percent of the votes, enough to bring the issue back at next year's annual meeting.
The shareholders, including some labor groups and institutional investors, urged investors at the company's annual meeting in Wilmington to require DuPont to detail the money it has spent over more than 20 years on lawyers, experts, public relations and lobbying surrounding perfluorooctanoic acid.
PFOA, a processing aid used in making fluoropolymers, has been the subject of several class-action lawsuits, and the Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to fine DuPont over allegations it did not report health hazards, charges the company disputes.