Monitoring Recyclates for Europe (MORE) is a new unified digital platform to monitor the uptake of recycled polymers into products. The IT platform is available to be used by converters since 25 April 2019. It was developed by EuPC in cooperation with its members and in support to the European Commission’s EU Plastics Strategy. Its objective is to monitor and register the plastics converting industry’s efforts to reach the EU target of 10 million t of recycled polymers used annually between 2025 and 2030.

Trinseo, a global materials solutions provider and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber has signed a definitive agreement with The Dow Chemical Company to acquire latex production facilities and related infrastructure at Rheinmunster, Germany.

In line with the vision that post-consumer plastic waste is too valuable for single use, OMV and Borealis are exploring the potential for synergies in the OMV ReOil innovation project: Borealis is a major polyolefin producer and has acquired two recycling companies as part of its focus on developing a roadmap for the circular economy. OMV has been exploring the potential of post-consumer plastics since 2011 and is now working on scaling up the ReOil process.

The relocation of major laboratory and pilot plant facilities to the new laboratory building at Lehvoss’ Hamburg-Wandsbek site has now been successfully completed ahead of schedule. The corner stone for the new innovation centre was laid in Wandsbek on 4 October 2017; the topping-out ceremony was celebrated on 18 April 2018.

Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals) has completed a EUR 4 million expansion at Mahad, India which will increase organic peroxides production capacity at the site by 80 %. The increased capacity will support growing customer demand in India and the Middle East for organic peroxides, essential in the manufacture of products such as athletic shoe soles, wind turbines and PVC pipes.

The Hungarian MOL Group has acquired recycled plastic compounder Aurora with production plants located nearby automotive manufacturing and plastics conversion clusters in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Aurora is headquartered in Neuenstein with a closed loop concept assuming collection of post-industrial plastic waste, regrinding and compounding, ultimately supplying the automotive industry and other industries. The company’s portfolio largely consists of engineering plastics and PP recyclate-based compounds. With this investment, MOL said it will be able to offer a wide range of high-quality PA, PP and other recyclate-based compounds, complementing its existing portfolio of virgin PP and PE.

VMI has opened a service center located in Chon Buri Province, Thailand. The company said that this underlines its commitment to building an organisation of global supply, supported by a local service network. The Thailand facility is the 9th service center of VMI.

South Korea’s leading tire manufacturer, Hankook Tire Group, has changed the name of its holding company and six major subsidiaries to an integrated branding system under Hankook, the company announced Wednesday (8 May 2019). Holding group Hankook Tire Worldwide has changed its name to Hankook Technology Group, while its flagship company Hankook Tire changed to Hankook Tire & Technology. Five other subsidiaries also changed the name to include the word Hankook, such as AtlasBX, a storage battery manufacturer, that changed to Hankook AtlasBX.

Cancarb expands its thermal carbon black production capa­city. Engineering and construction of a sixth thermal carbon black unit at its facility in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada has started in Q4 2018, with targeted completion by the summer of 2020. The company currently has five thermal carbon black units with a total capacity of 45,000 t. The sixth unit will add 9,000 t of capacity and will produce Cancarb’s signature grades of Thermax medium thermal carbon black. Cancarb is a subsidiary of Tokai Carbon Co. Ltd.

According to an announcement by Abu Dhabi Ports construction has started on the United Arab Emirates’s first tyre-manufacturing plant in Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhab (Kizad). Developed by Chinese tyre manufacturer Roadbot with a total investment of USD 614.37 million, the factory is being built in Kizad’s China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Zone and is expected to be fully operational by October 2020. The factory will have an initial annual production capacity of three million passenger car radial (PCR) tyres and one million truck and bus radial (TBR) tyres, with production of PCR tyres increasing to 10 million by 2022.