European Rubber Journal articles from March 2005

European Rubber Journal archives from March 2005

Die-cutting group buys United Polymers units; UK gasket and seal maker Avon GM sees its new units-Precision Cut Rubber and United Polymers sro-adding two good business to its existing successful operation.(Avon Group Manufacturing., United Polymers sro.)
March 1, 2005... Byline: Liz White Seal and gasket maker Avon Group Manufacturing has rescued UK moulder and gasket cutter Precision Cut Rubber from administration, and also acquired PCR's Czech sister unit, United Polymers sro, for undisclosed amounts....

Crosslink saves Maerdy unit from administration; Welsh plant of United Polymers becomes part of UK Enviro Group.(Envirogroup Holdings Ltd., Crosslink Ltd.)
March 1, 2005... Byline: Liz White The Maerdy, South Wales, plant of United Polymers Ltd has been bought from its administrators by a new management team, backed by a local firm, Envirogroup Holdings Ltd, for an undisclosed amount, and renamed Crosslink...

Vredestein deal to go through 'soon' as Amtel's growth rises.(News)
March 1, 2005... Byline: Liz White Russian tyre maker Amtel had another busy year in 2004, raising sales nearly 20 percent, completing a huge expansion programme and finalising plans to buy Dutch tyre maker Vredestein to give it toehold in the western...

Continental changes approach to Russian tyre market.(News)
March 1, 2005... Byline: David Shaw Continental AG has quietly changed its approach to the Russian market. Following its withdrawal from a joint venture with the Moscow Tyre Plant, Conti is no longer seeking a manufacturing base in the Russian region....

Machinery sales recover, but global competition is fierce.
March 1, 2005... Byline: David Shaw The world's rubber machinery business is worth around [euro]2000 million per year, and it has rarely known such a dynamic period of change and growth. According to ERJ data, overall sales grew around 17 percent in...

Comerio Ercole buys rubber part of Meccaniche Moderne.(Special Report)(Comerio Ercole SpA)(Meccaniche Moderne SpA)
March 1, 2005... Comerio Ercole SpA has bought the rubber machinery interests of Meccaniche Moderne SpA. According to a joint statement from the two companies, Comerio Ercole will make, sell and service all machinery relating to the rubber sector made by...

Mitsubishi investigates modular tyre manufacture.(Special Report)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' tyre and rubber machinery division is developing a modular tyre making system, similar in concept to VMI's MTM system, or Pirelli's MIRS, according to the general manager of that unit, Akira Nakahara. Nakahara...

Liquid silicone rubber offers scope to high-tech moulders.
March 1, 2005... Byline: David Shaw Silicone rubber moulding is a specialist area where manufacturers in high-cost countries can still make a good profit. This was the message from the Engel moulders' group seminar in Warwick at the start of February. ...

VMI, Marangoni to offer flexible tyre building system.(Marangoni Meccanica )
March 1, 2005... Byline: David Shaw VMI and Marangoni Meccanica are cooperating to build an automated tyre building system that, they claim, has all the advantages of Michelin's C3M (Confection Monofilament, Mondrian Michelin) and Pirelli's MIRS (Modular...

VMI A-Z develops extruder-gearpump combinations.(Special Report)
March 1, 2005... In 2004 VMI bought the extrusion division of the A-Z company, leaving A-Z to concentrate on mould production. Florian Fischer, who ran the extrusion unit under A-Z, remains the president and chief executive officer under the new ownership. ...

Briefs.
March 1, 2005... Vibracoustic North America purchases Gates AirSprings Plymouth, Michigan-Vibracoustic North America LP, the vibration-control business of Freudenberg-NOK GP, has acquired the assets of Gates AirSprings, a division of Denver-based Gates...

Machinery companies 2005.(Special Report)
March 1, 2005... This listing is based on data supplied by the companies themselves, and ERJ does not guarantee the accuracy of the data contained in the following listing. Nevertheless, we have done our best to ensure the data is accurate and reflects the size...

Nokian brings Russian project forward as group sales rise.(News)
March 1, 2005... Byline: David Shaw Nokian Tyres has decided to accelerate the second phase of its tyre factory in Russia. The Finnish tyre maker now aims to reach a capacity of four million tyres in its St Petersburg plant by 2008, having invested a total...

Growth at Matador as offtake deals & Ethiopian JV develop.(News)
March 1, 2005... Byline: Liz White Slovakian tyre maker Matador AS is installing a new K7 mixer and weighing/feeding equipment on the fourth mixing line at its Puchov plant. UK firm Chronos Richardson has a [pounds sterling]280 000 ([euro]400 000)...

Bridgestone plans 8000 tyres/day plant in Mexico.(News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Bridgestone Corp. has confirmed it is planning to build a new tyre plant for car and light truck tyres in Monterrey, Mexico. The company released a statement saying it intends to invest about $220 million ([euro]166 million) in the plant, which...

Briefs.
March 1, 2005... Michelin to spend [euro]253m at Olsztyn Paris-Groupe Michelin has confirmed that it intends to spend [euro]253 million to expand its tyre plant in Olsztyn, Poland, over the next three years. The investment will be aimed at car and...

Crompton aims to turn around rubber business in 2005.(News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Byline: David Shaw Crompton Corp. intends to turn its EPDM and rubber chemicals businesses around, following historically low profitability, Rich Owins, vice-president for EPDM and rubber chemicals told ERJ. According to Owins, "We did...

PolymerLatex cuts 100 jobs to raise competitiveness.(Polymer Latex GmbH & Co. KG)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Byline: Liz White German latex producer Polymer Latex GmbH & Co. KG says it has completed a "major restructuring programme," as part of which over 100 jobs have been eliminated, mostly in Germany. The group now has 700 employees. The...

Briefs.
March 1, 2005... JSR consolidates production of latex in Japan Tokyo-JSR Corp. has consolidated latex production at its Yokkaichi plant in Japan, and stopped production at Kashima, "as part of efforts to reinforce the competitiveness of the petrochemical...

Degussa lifts capacity at Chinese black plant-again.(News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Byline: Liz White Degussa AG plans to expand capacity of its Qingdao carbon black plant, Qingdao Degussa Chemical Co. Ltd (QDCC) to 100 kilotonnes per annum. The group is to build a fourth production line, as construction of a third line...

See more stories about suppliers on www.european-rubber-journal.com:.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... RATEC Intl to pay Chem-Trend over recipe infringements... Mitsubishi, Tokai revoke carbon black alliance...Dow Corning, Wacker agree to set up fumed silica plant in China... Carbon black demand to reach 10m tonnes in 2010... Bekaert reports...

Trelleborg adds Metso assets to marine fender unit.(News)
March 1, 2005... Byline: Liz White Trelleborg Engineered Systems is to buy fender machinery and other fender assets from Metso Minerals' Wear Protection & Conveying business, to add to its marine fenders business. The Swedish group claims the deal will...

Briefs.(Deutsches Institut fur Kautschuktechnologie., Beijing-Cabot Corp.)
March 1, 2005... DIK has new seminar building Hannover, Germany-The German rubber institute, the Deutsches Institut fur Kautschuktechnologie (DIK) has opened a new 465-m[sup.2] office and seminar building next to its existing premises in Hannover (see...

Bespak goes for in-house production of inhaler seals.(News)
March 1, 2005... Byline: Liz White Speciality medical device maker Bespak plc has decided to bring some of its elastomer seal manufacturing in house-largely as a result of developing proprietary white elastomers which are compliant with the new...

Update: Machinery survey 2005.
March 1, 2005... Byline: David Shaw The comments below come from interviews by David Shaw, ERJ's editor, at the recent Tire Technology Expo 2005, in Cologne, Germany. Kavir Tire According to Aria Nejad, technology manager at Kavir Tyre in Iran,...

Looking ahead * May/June 2004 issue.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... * International Rubber Exhibition preview The Maastricht IRC conference reprsents a departure from previous international rubber industry events, having been organised jointly by representatives of the British, Dutch and Belgian rubber...

Diary.(Calendar)
March 1, 2005... * International Rubber Molding Conference. 4-5 April. Contact Rubber & Plastics News. www.rubbernews.com * International Silicone Conference. 4-5 April. Contact Rubber & Plastics News. www.rubbernews.com * Fachtung TPE in der...

Oil prices appear steady at $50/barrel, while rubber eases.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Information We present here a series of charts and tables which are meant to give a snapshot of how the rubber industry is performing. The price of rubber on the Singapore commodity exchange is possibly the most important price in the...

Machinery recovers, but not everywhere.
March 1, 2005... Byline: David Shaw Every year we look at the machinery sector. it's been going on for nearly a decade now, so we have seen some big changes since we first started. Sales in the US and west Europe plummeted between 2001 and 2003. Last...

Elementis may sell Linatex rubber business; Elementis' involvement in Linatex stems from its early history as Harrisons and Crosfield, a trading group with natural rubber plantations in Malaysia.
March 1, 2005... Byline: Liz White Elementis' involvement in Linatex stems from its early history as Harrisons and Crosfield, a trading group with natural rubber plantations in Malaysia. The Linatex material was originally a novel form of precured NR...

Avon closing one hose site, opening another in Turkey.(News)(Avon Rubber PLC)
March 1, 2005... Byline: Liz White Reorganisation at Avon Rubber plc will see closure of an unnamed European hose plant, a spokesperson for the Bradford-on-Avon, UK-headquartered automotive and technical rubber goods maker confirmed. At the same time Avon...

ERJ web news.(News)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... www.european-rubber-journal.com has more stories. Nichirin increases brake hose output... Continental will report record earnings... Carlisle 2004 earnings drop 10 percent from charges on for-sale units... West acquires Monarch...

Briefs.
March 1, 2005... Playtex to cut jobs, outsource gloves Westport, Connecticut-Playtex Products Inc. plans to outsource production of latex gloves to Malaysia and cut more than 300 jobs, or 20 percent of its workforce. The realignment aims to allow...

Hexagon Polymers may set up mixing in China, Brazil.(News)
March 1, 2005... Byline: Liz White Hexagon Group's strategy is to aim for continued expansion in its core polymers and metrology businesses, Ola Rollen, Hexagon's chief executive, told a meeting with analysts, 2 Dec. Rollen also listed priorities for...

Briefs.
March 1, 2005... Chicago Rawhide expands in Illinois Nottingham, UK-Speciality seals manufacturer Chicago Rawhide-a division of SKF Group-is upgrading the weighing and mixer feeding systems at its plant in Elgin, Illinois. Nottingham-based mixing room...