Heartland opens recycled-fencing plant
TORRINGTON, WYO. - Torrington-based Heartland BioComposites LLC opened its extrusion plant this month, launching commercial production of natural-fiber composite lumber.
Using 100 percent-recycled polyethylene, with wheat straw as a filler, Heartland makes a board it said is seven times stronger than more-mainstream wood-plastic composite boards, and less expensive.
The company has remained tight-lipped about its product developments and operations and said it will remain so for the rest of the year.
In a brief telephone interview, Heartland President Heath Van Eaton did say that the company will focus on penetrating the fence market with its new PrairiePicket privacy fencing system. Heartland will not compete with deck board makers, Van Eaton said.
Information regarding the facility's size, its capacity and the number of employees was unavailable.
Myers exits European materials handling
AKRON, OHIO - Myers Industries Inc. of Akron has agreed to sell its European Material Handling Group to Linpac Group Ltd. of Birmingham, England.
Myers Industries had announced its intent to sell the unit in July. The operations include Myers' Raaco business in Nykøbing Falster, Denmark, and its Allibert-Buckhorn Ltd. subsidiary in Prunay-sur-Essonne, France.
Terms were not disclosed. The sale is scheduled to close before the end of the year.
Raaco, which Myers acquired in 1998, has one facility in Denmark where it makes plastic bins, toolboxes and small-parts storage systems. Myers acquired Allibert-Buckhorn in 1999. Allibert has five facilities in France, Spain and the United Kingdom. It makes reusable plastic containers, pallets and bulk storage tanks.
Bankrupt Creative to shut remaining sites
AKRON, OHIO - Akron-based Creative Engineered Polymer Products LLC plans to close the last of its remaining operations in December.
The producer of bumpers, seals and other components for the auto industry had announced, prior to filing for Chapter 11 protection Sept. 20, that it would close four of its eight plants, including three in Ohio - in Canton, Crestline and Vandalia - and one in Lapeer, Mich.
At the time, the company planned to keep open and search for buyers for its plants in Belleville, Mich.; Middlefield, Ohio; Bishopville, S.C.; and Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Now those plants also will close, according to company officials.
All eight plants formerly were part of the automotive segment of Carlisle Cos. of Charlotte, N.C. The Reserve Group, an investment firm in Fairlawn, Ohio, acquired the automotive business from Carlisle in August 2005 and formed Creative Engineered Polymer.
At that time, the plants in Ohio, Alabama, Michigan and South Carolina employed a total of 1,200. The company also has operations in Mexico.
Continental cuts jobs at Ohio operation
BINGHAM FARMS, MICH. - Continental Structural Plastics Co. is laying off about two-thirds of the workers at its Carey, Ohio, thermoset molding plant as it restructures that operation.
Bingham Farms-based Continental will focus on large contracts at the plant and will move shorter production work to its smaller North Baltimore, Ohio, facility, according to Norm Risner, president of Local 1803 of the United Auto Workers, which represents employees in Carey. The biggest single contract known to remain in Carey is a truck front end and Continental has said it will seek more such work for the operation, Risner said in a telephone interview. Carey processes sheet molding compound.
Continental told workers it will begin laying off 231 of Carey's 335 workers in mid-December and continue the layoffs over some six months. Many of Carey's contracts will expire over the next year but the amount of work going to North Baltimore means the company will add an unspecified number of jobs there.
Continental has owned the Carey plant since July when it bought the Budd Plastics Division of Thyssen Krupp Automotive AG. The layoff is a matter of right-sizing plants, according to Continental Vice President Thomas Hilborn. He said Continental has no plans for layoffs elsewhere in the acquired sites.