Compounder S&E secures home base
LUNENBURG, MASS. - Compounder S&E Specialty Polymers LLC is solidifying its home base with the purchase of the building and the land it occupies in Lunenburg.
Using its subsidiary 140 LBURG LLC - which stands for the address of the building - S&E paid $2.6 million in May to acquire the facility and about 6 acres of land.
S&E was formed in January 2005, to buy the assets of bankrupt entity Gitto Global Corp. for $8.97 million. The building and land were owned by Tradex Corp., a company run by Gitto Global founder Charles Gitto Jr. The building and land later were sold in bankruptcy court to a Florida-based firm.
Jim Mihalich, S&E operations vice president, said the purchase means "stability" for the firm.
"It's an opportunity - now we don't have to worry about someone looking over our shoulder," Mihalich said.
He said the firm has been growing since its purchase and that by owning its home, it opens room for expansion, as it is needed.
S&E makes compounds based on PVC, polyolefins, thermoplastic olefins and styrenics.
Ozmotech deal turns plastic waste to fuel
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - Melbourne-based Ozmotech Pty. Ltd. has signed a four-year contract with Dutch renewable energy company EnvoSmart Technologies BV to supply 31 Thermofuel systems, which convert waste plastic to diesel fuel.
The A$191 million (US$141.2 million) deal covers the installations of six Thermofuel systems in Germany. They are set to start up by June 2007. Installations in the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic will follow in 2008.
EnvoSmart has European rights to sell Ozmotech's system. One Thermofuel plant can produce 2,340 gallons of diesel from 22 million pounds of waste plastic, according to the company.
However, the Australian Tax Office last year ruled an excise exemption for alternative fuels did not apply to diesel made from waste plastic, said an Ozmotech spokesman. That decision caused a A$90 million (US$66.9 million) deal with biodiesel firm Axiom Energy Pty. Ltd. to be put on hold.
Spanish PET producer hunts for acquisitions
BARCELONA, SPAIN - Rapidly growing PET producer La Seda de Barcelona SA has admitted it is in acquisition talks with plastics producers in several European countries, including the Turkish-owned company Advansa BV.
Hoofddorp, Netherlands-based Advansa, part of Turkish industrial conglomerate Haci Omer Sabanci AS of Istanbul, is a leading European polyester fiber, PET resin and bottle preform maker. Prior to 2004, it was DuPont SA, a 50-50 joint venture between DuPont Co. of Wilmington, Del., and Sabanci.
With plants in Wilton, England, and Adana, Turkey, Advansa has annual production capacity of PET resin totaling almost 662 million pounds. It operates a PET preform plant in Inegöl, Turkey, and last year launched a unit in Romania to serve the local bottle market. Advansa also operates a polyester plant in Uentrop, Germany.
Last year Advansa developed new multilayer grades to meet the demand for emerging applications, such as beer in PET containers. It also completed new R&D facilities in Adana.
La Seda, which in February paid $66 million for a 70 percent stake in PET resin producer Selenis SGPS SA of Portalegre, Portugal, and its Italian subsidiary, confirmed that it is in acquisition discussions after a Spanish press report that it was set to buy Advansa for 300 million euros ($384 million).
"We are studying different options in the PET industry, and Advansa is one of those options. But we haven't taken any binding decision yet," said a La Seda spokeswoman, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
Barcelona-based La Seda announced earlier this year that it expects to raise its PET resin capacity to 1.7 billion pounds per year by 2007.