Siegel-Robert sheds its packaging unit
ST. LOUIS - Injection molder Siegel-Robert Inc. of St. Louis has sold its plastic packaging subsidiary to private equity firm ADF Capital Partners LLC in St. Peters, Mo.
The sale includes a 131,000-square-foot plant in Elberton, Ga., which operates as Siegel Robert Plastics. The plant makes rigid dispensers and active closures for packaging with 36 injection presses with clamping forces of 55-1,100 tons.
ADF officials did not return calls seeking comment before deadline.
Blaige & Co. of Chicago advised Siegel on the deal, which was announced June 20. According to Blaige, ADF Capital Partners is active in manufacturing and distribution. The firm also owns injection molder Mark Mold & Tool Inc. in Evansville, Ind.
Lightning strikes PolyOne Texas plant
SEABROOK, TEXAS - PolyOne Corp.'s compounding plant in Seabrook was put out of commission June 18 when its electrical transformer was struck by lightning.
The lightning strike knocked out electrical power at the facility. Initial assessment showed ``no obvious downstream damage,'' officials with Avon Lake, Ohio-based PolyOne said in a news release.
Production was expected to be restored within a week. PolyOne was able to make shipments to customers from existing inventory on June 19 and June 20.
The Seabrook site makes compound and additive products for the film, pipe and fittings markets.
Error forces outage at Nova's Corunna site
CORUNNA, ONTARIO - Bad luck continues to follow Nova Chemicals Corp., as worker error temporarily stopped production at its plastic feedstocks plant in Corunna on June 21.
Nova officials said the shutdown occurred when a contractor inadvertently activated a process shutdown switch. The contractor was working for a firm that is installing structural steel platforms at the site.
Pittsburgh-based Nova expects to be back at full production with two weeks, but has declared force majeure on propylene monomer and related products. The event is expected to reduce Nova's net profit in the second and third quarters of 2006 by US$11 million.
Production at Nova's polyethylene plant in nearby Sarnia will continue at close-to-normal levels during the outage, according to Nova spokesman Greg Wilkinson. Both sites endured lengthy outages in late 2005 and early 2006 for maintenance and modernization, costing the firm between $60 million and $70 million.
Wilbert to open molding plant in Ohio
BROADVIEW, ILL. - Broadview-based Wilbert Plastic Services Inc. plans to open a 200,000-square-foot injection molding plant in Bellevue, Ohio, to supply Whirlpool Corp.'s expanding manufacturing presence in Ohio.
The new Wilbert plant, slated to employ about 200, will be about eight miles from Whirlpool's facility in Clyde, Ohio. Wilbert will make agitators, augers and other plastic components for Whirlpool products there.
``We're thrilled to have a new outsourcing partnership with Whirlpool ... and to be able to expand our injection molding business at the same time,'' said Curt Zamec, Wilbert's chief executive officer, in a company news release.
Wilbert officials did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story.
Wilbert Plastic Services is a subsidiary of Wilbert Inc., a supplier of materials for burial vault manufacturing. The plastics division is made up of St. Paul, Minn.-based thermoformer TPI, TriEnda Corp. in Portage Wis., and injection molder Morton Custom Plastics.
Whirlpool announced recently its intentions to consolidate washer and dryer production from various Maytag Corp. manufacturing sites with Whirlpool laundry factories in Clyde and Marion, Ohio. Whirlpool and Maytag merged earlier this year.