Plastics News - May 20, 2019 - 3

Plastics News, May 20, 2019 * 3

AdvanSix halts nylon film making in Pa.
Parsippany, N.J. - AdvanSix Inc. is ending nylon film production at its site in Pottsville, Pa. The closure of the site will be completed in the third quarter.
About 85 jobs will be eliminated in the move, a spokeswoman
with Parsippany-based AdvanSix said in an email to Plastics News.
The site made biaxially oriented nylon film used in food packaging
and other applications.
AdvanSix now will supply customers with nylon film through a
partnership with Lurin, Peru-based Oben Group.
Market sources said that Honeywell International Inc., which
spun off AdvanSix as a separate firm in 2016, will continue to make
fluoropolymer films in Pottsville.
In a blog post, Montesino Associates LLC Managing Director Peter Schmitt said that AdvanSix and its predecessor firms - including Allied Chemical, Allied Signal and Honeywell - had been extruding nylon and other materials at the Pottsville site since 1961.
But higher prices and industry competition have made it more
difficult for resin makers to profit from downstream operations.
"While raw material prices trended ever higher, film processing
margins decreased," Schmitt said.
AdvanSix ranks as one of the world's largest makers of nylon 6.
The firm posted sales of just over $1.5 billion in 2018.

New owner for Illinois-based extruders
Mundelein, Ill. - Family-owned Lakeland Plastics Inc. and Derby
Fence Co., which are based at the same site in Mundelein, were acquired by a family of investors based in Chicago. The companies did
not identify the new owners.
Founded in 1962, Lakeland extrudes profiles, rods and tubing for
the lighting, refrigeration, construction, industrial, consumer products, water treatment, telecom and signage markets. The business
also offers design, tooling and 3D printing.
Derby extrudes thick-walled high density polyethylene fencing
with two to four rails of internal ribbing for enclosing livestock, pasture and ranch lands. Terms of the deal, which closed April 23, were
not disclosed.
Phil Pizzurro, managing director of mergers and acquisitions at
Dallas-based Generational Capital Markets LLC, said the new owners
don't plan to make any changes while they learn more about the business, employees and culture. His firm represented the sellers.
"The ultimate goal is to make the appropriate investments in Lakeland that will benefit the business, employees and customers for the
next 20 to 30 years rather than focusing on an abbreviated return on
investment," he said.

Diverse Optics buys mold supplier
Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. - Diverse Optics Inc., an engineering
and fabrication firm specializing in custom precision polymer optical
systems used in commercial, industrial, medical and defense sectors,
has purchased its supplier of injection molds, Future Molds Inc.
The companies are across the street from each other in Rancho
Cucamonga.
Diverse Optics formed a corporation called Diverse Molds Inc. to
purchase the assets of Future Molds, and it has hired the employees
of the small mold maker, said Megan Terry, sales coordinator at Diverse Optics.
Future Molds co-founder Tony Parsons and his staff will relocate
all equipment and operations into Diverse Optics' new 33,000-squarefoot headquarters, which should open in mid-July. Terms were not
disclosed for the deal, announced May 13.
"The acquisition and consolidation of our longtime mold making
partner will benefit customers with improved tooling delivery and
price competitiveness," Diverse Optics CEO Erik Fleming said.

Milacron selling blow molding
business to private equity firms
By Bill Bregar
Plastics News Staff
Milacron Holdings Corp. is
selling its Uniloy blow molding
business to private equity firms
Osgood Capital Group LLC and
Cyprium Investment Partners
LLC.
Milacron announced the news
May 14, just two weeks after the
machinery manufacturer disclosed in its first-quarter financial
report that it was exiting the Uniloy business and putting it up for
sale.
Milacron bought Uniloy in 1998
from Johnson Controls Inc. Milacron is holding onto the structural foam machinery business that
it bought from JCI at the same
time.
Terms of the deal were not
immediately released. Milacron,
which is traded on the New York
Stock Exchange, said the transaction is expected to close within 90
days.
"The sale of the Uniloy blow
molding business is being transacted in the best interests of Milacron, its stockholders and its

A Uniloy UR 70 Series blow molding machine.
customers," Milacron CEO Tom
Goeke said in a news release.
"Uniloy has operated as a Milacron product brand since 1998,
and we are confident it will continue to thrive under its new ownership in the years ahead."
Goeke said the sale "is consistent with our decision to concentrate on our core industry-leading
technologies, including Milacron
injection
molding
machines,

Milacron Holdings Corp. photo

Milacron extrusion equipment,
Mold-Masters hot runner and
control systems, DME mold components and our CIMCOOL fluid
technologies."
The new Uniloy will employ
about 200 people worldwide. Uniloy is based in Tecumseh, Mich.,
where it also makes molds. Blow
molding machinery assembly is at
Milacron's main assembly plant in
See Uniloy, Page 27

Haitian building plant in Mexico
By Bill Bregar
Plastics News Staff
Chinese injection molding machinery maker Haitian International Holdings Ltd. is accenting
the "international" by announcing
a 290,625-square-foot manufacturing plant in Mexico.
Haitian officials will hold a
groundbreaking ceremony May 28
for what they term the first phase
of the plant in Acatlán de Juárez,
about 30 miles from Guadalajara.
The plant is expected to open
about 18 to 20 months after the
groundbreaking, according to
José Barroso, commercial director of the company's local subsid-

iary, Haitian Huayuan Mexico S de
RL de CV. He said about 300 people will work there to start.
The factory will produce Haitian machines for Mexico, Central
America and some countries in
South America, Barroso said.
Barroso could not give an investment amount.
Plans for the manufacturing
plant continue a string of investment in Mexico for Ningbo, China-based Haitian. At the recent
Plastimagen trade show in Mexico City, Barroso said Haitian is
setting up two new tech centers
in Mexico this year, in Monterrey
and Juárez, which will give it six
in Mexico.

Haitian posted 2018 sales in
Mexico of about $32 million, and
it sold about 400 presses there.
Barroso said the company is the
leading press supplier in Mexico,
with an estimated market share of
30 percent.
Just two days after the groundbreaking in Mexico, on May 30,
Haitian will hold a grand opening
ceremony at a new U.S. operations
center in Moncks Corner, S.C.,
north of Charleston. That building, measuring 116,000 square
feet, including an assembly area,
is part of Absolute Haitian Corp.,
the exclusive sales and service
unit for Haitian injection presses
in the United States and Canada.

GLOBAL INDUSTRY ELECTRONICS
PACKAGING MARKET

Sepro, Universal Robots sign agreement
La Roche-sur-Yon, France - French robot maker Sepro Group
and collaborative robot builder Universal Robots have signed an
agreement in the areas of cobots and industrial automation.
Under the partnership, announced May 8, Sepro will integrate its
Visual control system with cobots supplied by Universal Robots.
Collaborative robots can work side by side with human workers.
Sepro developed the Visual control platform specifically for robots used in injection molding machines. All Sepro robots, including co-branded lines, are controlled by Visual, giving the same user
interface regardless of the type of robot, including beam robots,
six-axis articulating arm robots and now cobots.
By adding the Visual control to the Universal Robot cobot, La
Roche-sur-Yon-based Sepro is providing seamless integration of
the UR technology with other Sepro robots and the molding machine.

$1.6
BILLION

Market value in 2019

4.1%
CAGR for
2019-2029

Lucrative
packaging type

Corrugated
boxes

Emerging
country

China

Graphic by Jessica Jordan; source: Future Market Insights

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Plastics News - May 20, 2019

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