Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Podcasts
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • CFO of the Year
    • Notable Leaders in Sustainability
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics Caps + Closures: A Global Online Event
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Bioplastics Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • PFAS Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Resin Prices Overview
    • Commodity Thermoplastics
    • High Temperature Thermoplastics
    • Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Thermosets
    • Europe - Virgin
    • Europe - Recycled
    • Europe - Feedstock
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
December 08, 2016 01:00 AM

Complete systems help drive compounding extruder sales

Bill Bregar
Senior Staff Reporter
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Caroline Seidel
    Erema GmbH CEO Manfred Hackl at K 2016. KraussMaffei Berstorff announced Erema will supply recycling systems for Berstorff's compounding technology.

    Most compounding extruder executives say the U.S. is holding up — and it's been fairly broad-based, even including some recycling lines. Automotive business remains solid.

    The year 2016 was marked by acquisitions among compounders. Americhem Inc. bought V-Chem Corp. Teknor Apex Co. picked up PTS GmbH. Ravago Group bought Industrial Resin Recycling Inc.

    Machinery companies that supply complete systems, not just the extruder, are seeing strong demand.

    Linda Campbell, director of sales at Entek Manufacturing in Lebanon, Ore., said the company did not sell as many units as officials wanted, but Entek sold many complete systems.

    “Business this year's been great, especially with our turnkey projects, so we've had a lot of large projects. That exceeded our goals at least for the year,” Campbell said.

    KraussMaffei Berstorff also continues to get orders for general compounding lines, said Paul Caprio, president of KraussMaffei Corp. in Florence, Ky.

    “We are also seeing the need to sell complete lines versus just extruders, and this trend has been going on for some time now,” he said. “The customers do not seem to have the capacity to handle the downstream equipment and prefer to give the entire system business to the supply chain, which is an advantage for companies like KM that can do all the engineering for the complete line business.”

    The recycling business has been hit by lower prices for virgin resin. But there is some life.

    At K 2016, KraussMaffei Berstorff announced it is teaming up with Erema Engineering Recycling und Anlagen GmbH. Erema will supply recycling systems for Berstorff's re-compounding technology.

    In late November, Bob Urtel said Century Extrusion in Traverse City, Mich., has one compounding extruder for recycling in production and one on backlog for 2017.

    “Recycling's not a big area, but there's some business,” he said.

    Urtel, who is Century's president, echoed other compounding extruder officials about turnkey lines.

    “We have a good backlog of machines going into 2017. Our quoting pipeline is solid,” he said. “We're doing expanded scope, which is something that we refer to as integrating feeders and downstream equipment into a line. That continues to be important to us and we're getting more of that now. Customers are more interested in single sourcing now. That's becoming a bigger part of our business.”

    The U.S. compounding extruder market used to be cyclical, one year up, one year down. But the days of feast or famine seem to be over ... at least for now.

    “That's true for us,” Urtel said. “Our revenue since the recession has been very, very steady. No busts and booms since we came ripping out of the recession. It's been steady and growing.”

    Steer America Inc. in Uniontown, Ohio, had its best year ever in the fiscal year that ended in March, and the company is on target to match that, said Mike Millsaps, chief operations officer.

    “We're seeing a lot of success with the biopolymers,” Millsaps said. “Engineering resins compounding is good. Color compounding is still good. But for us, the biggest increase is the biopolymers.”

    Eberhard Dieterich, business unit manager at Coperion Corp., said the company is seeing a mix of projects, including greenfield plants driven by global customers that have operations in the United States. “What we're seeing is there's still quite a lot of activity,” he said.

    Dustin Kremer, sales engineer at Uway Extrusion LLC, was bit downbeat about the U.S. market in 2016. “What I'm seeing overall is equipment was down this year,” he said.

    Kremer thinks the compounding consolidation demonstrates an industry he said is weakened by a combination of the nasty U.S. presidential election and low material prices.

    “Normally, that indicates that you're not seeing a lot of growth in the market. The larger companies will buy up competitors,” he said.

    Kremer is optimistic for 2017 as German automakers continue to add production in the Carolinas and Mexico.

    Uway is based in Warren, Ohio.

    The compounding machinery industry — as well as compounders themselves — are running “stable, at a decent level,” said Paul Roberson, president of NFM Welding Engineers Inc. in Massillon, Ohio.

    The Great Recession weeded out weaker, highly leveraged companies.

    “The people doing OK or who had special technologies or the proper financial structure, they survived. I would not say that anybody thrived,” he said.

    As an Ohio guy, Roberson wants to see new polyolefin crackers begin cranking up, to take advantage of the region's strength in hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking. He's still waiting.

    “When that much polymer production comes online in the U.S., then the prices are going to drop, and I would predict, to the lowest in the world,” Roberson said.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    People in plastics: Week of Nov. 27, 2023
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Geon takes ‘key step forward' with PolymaxTPE acquisition
    2
    Orion expects to open fourth compounding line in 2024
    3
    People in plastics: Week of Nov. 27, 2023
    4
    Sussex IM sells Mr. Lid brand, will continue molding
    5
    Former ACC economist explains business cycles in new book
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Find more newsletters at plasticsnews.com/newsletters.

    You can unsubscribe at any time through links in these emails. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • CFO of the Year
        • Notable Leaders in Sustainability
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Videos
      • Podcasts
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics Caps + Closures: A Global Online Event
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Bioplastics Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • PFAS Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Resin Prices Overview
      • Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temperature Thermoplastics
      • Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Recycled Plastics
      • Thermosets
      • Europe - Virgin
      • Europe - Recycled
      • Europe - Feedstock
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified