Environmentalists and civic groups in Taiwan's southern port city of Kaohsiung on Sunday (11 November 2018) protested for cleaner air in the wake of air pollution caused by factory emissions. "The 2018 Anti-Air pollution Rally" was organized by a coalition of environmental and health groups, including Southern Taiwan Anti-Air Pollution Alliance and Air Clean Taiwan's Kaohsiung branch.

DuPont announced it would invest over USD 80 million in Jiangsu province for a new specialty materials manufacturing plant during the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai. DuPont signed the deal with the Zhangjiagang local government during the CIIE on Thursday (8 November 2018) for a USD 80 million manufacturing facility, expected to become operational in 2020 and further expanded by 2023.

Covestro announced that it has raised its stake in the Joint Venture DIC Covestro Polymer Ltd. (DCP) from 50 % to 80 %.

Three medical-grade thermoplastic elastomers for biopharmaceutical tubing provide performance superior to the industry standard TPE in this application, making them effective alternatives to silicone. This was announced by Teknor Apex. The company will introduce the Medalist compounds at North America’s largest medtech event, MD&M West in February 2019 in Anaheim, CA, USA. 

Javier Constante, Commercial Vice President, Packaging and Specialty Plastics Business EMEA of Dow Europe, was nominated as new president of PlasticsEurope. He succeeds Daniele Ferrari, CEO of Versalis (Eni), who held this office since 2017 and was elected President of Cefic (the European Chemical Industry Council) at the end of October 2018.

KraussMaffei Group with headquarters in Munich, Germany has been target of a cyber incident. Since 20 November 2018, parts of the KraussMaffei Group have only limited electronic access. The companie’s sites in Näfels (Netstal), Florence/USA (Krauss-Maffei Corporation) and Hanover (KraussMaffei Berstorff) have not been affected.

A line of TPEs for medical device applications was featured by Colorite, a Tekni-Plex business unit, at Medica/Compamed 2018 in Düsseldorf.

Toyoda Gosei has acquired a majority stake in Hubei Rock Rubber and Seal Technology Co., Ltd. Hubei Rock, located in central China, is an independent supplier that provides weatherstrips mainly to Dongfeng Motor Corporation, one of China’s “Big Three” automakers, and its joint venture companies with Japanese and other foreign manufacturers, including Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co., Ltd. and Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile Co., Ltd.

With Desmopan 37385A Covestro now offers the first representative of a series of TPUs containing polyether carbonate polyols based on the company’s proprietary cardyon CO2 technology. Compared to conventional materials, this new TPU leaves a lower carbon footprint and unlike many bio-based materials, do not compete with food production.

New flame retardant styrene-based Solplast thermoplastic elastomers from Uteksol now complement the portfolio of Hamburg-based Albis Plastic.