Next PN issue runs Nov. 29: compounding
AKRON, OHIO — The next issue of Plastics News will come out on Nov. 29, and will be a combined issue for Nov. 22 and Nov. 29.
The Nov. 29 issue will feature our Compounding Special Report.
Plastics News, based in Akron, will regularly update its website during the break. So, stay on top of the latest in breaking news by checking online daily at PlasticsNews.com.
SKC investing $100M in Georgia project
ATLANTA — SKC Inc. will open a new polyester films plant on its campus in Covington, Ga., the state's governor said Nov. 5.
According to a news release from Gov. Sonny Perdue, the U.S. subsidiary of Seoul, South Korea-based SK Co. Ltd. will spend $100 million on the project. It is expected to create 120 jobs.
SKC Inc.'s facilities in Covington include its U.S. corporate headquarters, polyester film production facilities and a new chemical systems house that opened in May 2010.
According to the release, the new 200,000-square-foot plant will produce film components for the budding U.S. solar-panel industry as well as other products, and is expected to be built in two phases.
SKC opened its state-of-the-art headquarters and manufacturing facility in Covington in May 1999, and manufactures a variety of Skyrol-brand polyester films on three production lines.
The company expects to begin hiring for jobs created through the Georgia expansion in April.
SK Group, which operates facilities in the U.S., South Korea, China and Japan, manufactures specialty and PET film sold under Skyrol, Skywel, Skynex and SKC PI brands.
Accident kills KW worker, injures another
TROY, ALA. — An employee at plastics recycling firm KW Plastics in Troy was killed and another injured when they were struck by a truck on company property Nov. 8.
KW released a statement that said an accident had claimed the life of an employee of the Recycling Division of KW Plastics and that a second employee was “seriously injured.”
“Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of our two employees during this tragic time,” the statement said. “No further comment is available pending the outcome of the final investigation.”
According to a police statement, the driver of the truck was also a KW employee. Both the police and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are conducting investigations.
Distributor Modern Plastics moving HQ
BRIDGEPORT, CONN. — Modern Plastics Inc. is moving its corporate headquarters from Bridgeport, its current location for the past 65 years, to Shelton, Conn.
The firm is a major distributor of medical-grade plastics and engineering-grade plastic stock shapes and fabricated parts.
The new facility will have an environmentally controlled room for storage of medical plastics, 5,000 square feet of office space and more than 18,000 square feet of manufacturing space, including a retail store for items such as cut-to-size Plexiglas acrylic and Lexan polycarbonate sheet.
President Bing Carbone said the move will give the company more-efficient manufacturing space, larger offices plus a retail store to serve the local market.
The new headquarters is scheduled to open in early 2011.
Pipe maker Prinsco expands to N. Dakota
WILLMAR, MINN. — High density polyethylene pipe extruder Prinsco Inc. plans to expand into North Dakota with a new distribution yard, which the company intends as a future manufacturing facility.
The site in Gardner is near Fargo. Willmar-based Prinsco said the expansion “signals their strong commitment to providing more capacity, more convenience and increased service to their agricultural customer base in the Midwest.”
The Gardner site also offers space and flexibility to transition quickly into a manufacturing plant, said sales Vice President James Duininck. The distribution yard is slated to open in the spring.
Prinsco makes single- and double-wall HDPE pipe used in agriculture. The company also has facilities in Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, California and South Dakota.