AKRON, OHIO — K show-related items from BASF SE and Bayer MaterialScience are featured in this week's Material Insights video.
BASF unveiled several new products at a two-day event held at its headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Those roll-outs included Infinergy, the industry's first-ever expanded thermoplastic polyurethane foam, which already is being used in Energy Boost running shoes made by Adidas. At BMS headquarters in Leverkusen, the firm announced it would open a commercial-scale plant making PU and related products from carbon dioxide in Germany by 2015. K 2013 will be held Oct. 16-23 in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Tight polypropylene supplies for North America also are featured in this week's video. Pinnacle Polymers declared force majeure on PP production at its plant in Garyville, La., after officials said the plant was having difficulty in sourcing propylene monomer feedstock. Formosa Plastics had declared force majeure at its PP plant in Point Comfort, Texas, earlier in the month.
The video wraps up with news that Italian compounder So.F.Ter Group would spend almost $12 million to build its first U.S. plant in Lebanon, Tenn. The plant will employ 50 in a 100,000-square-foot space, making compounds based on engineering resins for automotive and other markets.