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Plastics Dominate Cosmetic Container Market

The U.S. market for cosmetic and toiletry containers is expected to grow more than 2 percent yearly through 2003, to more than 16 billion units, with value gains forecast at more than 4 percent yearly to $2.3 billion.

According to the study Cosmetics & Toiletry Containers, by The Freedonia Group Inc., while markets like shaving products are highly mature, others, notably hair and skin care products, will benefit from new product introductions and favorable demographic shifts. The latter include gains in the teen and college-aged segments as well as the aging of the large "baby boom" generation.

Technological developments and new product introductions will allow for further market penetration. Most promising in plastic containers are tubes, which are finding increasing market acceptance due to a quality image and design advances in caps and closures. A lessening of environmental concerns as a result of strong plastic recycling programs will also benefit demand.

Toiletry markets with favorable growth prospects include hair and skin care, with sun care products and hair colors among the fastest growing applications. Perfumes and colognes will also provide slightly above average opportunities as producers increasingly target men, teenagers and young girls. Lip and nail cosmetics will continue to do well, based on fashion trends and consumers' tendency toward purchasing multiple colors of these products.

For further details about Cosmetics & Toiletry Containers, contact Corinne Gangloff at The Freedonia Group, (440) 684-9600, FAX (440) 646-0484, e-mail pr@freedoniagroup.com. The full text of the study is also available online at www.freedoniagroup.com.

Effective Sept. 1, Tennessee-based Eastman Chemical Co. reorganized its management structure to center around two newly created business groups: polymers and chemicals. J. Brian Ferguson is heading up the polymers group, and Allan R. Rothwell is president of the chemicals group.

The polymers business group includes container plastics, fibers, flexible plastics and specialty plastics. The chemicals business group includes coatings, inks and resins, fine chemicals, industrial intermediates and performance chemicals.

The two groups will report to the Office of the CEO, which is led by Earnest Deavenport Jr., Eastman's chairman and CEO. In addition to Deavenport, the Office of the CEO includes: R. Wiley Bourne Jr., vice chairman and executive vice president; Dr. James L. Chitwood, senior vice president and chief technology officer; and Darryl Williams, senior vice president.

"Our new organizational structure was driven by three major factors &emdash; customer focus, accountability and efficiency," Deavenport said. "This structure puts our work groups together in a way that makes it easier for employees to develop a sharper customer focus and a greater understanding of how to create value for both our customers and our company. This will enable Eastman people to better align their work with what customers value. They will be able to make decisions and respond to customers faster."

Mort French Sr. was awarded the Paul Davis Award of Merit at the International Association of Plastics Distributors annual meeting held in September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. French is the CEO of Commercial Plastics and Supply Corp., Boca Raton, FL.

The Paul Davis Award is the plastic distribution industry's most prestigious award. It is named for the founder of the IAPD and is given to an individual who has made significant contributions to either the IAPD or to the plastics distribution industry in general.

In presenting the award, IAPD Past President Graeme Fraser cited French's 50-plus years commitment to the plastics industry. French began his small business in the 1940s by purchasing surplus acrylic sheet that had been originally manufactured for use in the canopies of World War II B-29 bombers.

Since then, his company has grown to more than $500 million in sales. Commercial Plastics and Supply has 93 profit centers in North America and abroad and employs more than 1,400 people.

French had previously been honored by the IAPD in 1994 when he, along with 13 others, were presented with the association's Pioneer Award.

Established in 1956, the IAPD is an international trade association composed of distributors and manufacturers of industrial plastics.

Nova Chemical Corp., Calgary, Canada, divested its 38.8 million shares of Dynegy Inc. following the merger between Dynegy and Illinova Corp. "We strongly endorse this merger and the strategic direction the new company will be taking," said Nova Chemicals President and CEO Jeff Lipton.

Under the terms of the Dynegy/Illinova merger, Dynegy's public shareholders will have the opportunity to convert their shares into a combination of cash and/or common shares of the combined company. This deal should make the shares worth more than $645 million according to Nova.

The merger is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2000, subject to satisfying certain conditions, including the closing of the previously announced sale of the Clinton nuclear power station by Illinois-based Illinova and requisite regulatory and shareholder approvals. All approvals will be pursued concurrently.

In other Nova news, the company announced the sale of a polystyrene technology license and basic engineering package for a world-scale, 100 kilotonnes per year PS facility to be built by Taita Chemical in Taiwan. The license is for Nova Chemicals' process technology for the manufacture of both high-impact polystyrene and crystal polystyrene. Stone & Webster Canada Ltd. has begun work on the basic engineering package.

TownsendTarnell Inc.'s study on metallocene polypropylene (mPP) predicts global consumption of the product will increase more than 65 percent a year, from 40,000 metric tons to 500,000 metric tons by the year 2003. Injection molding applications are expected to replace fiber applications as the volume leader.

According to the study, Metallocene Polypropylene &emdash; 1998, An Update of Advancements, Players and Market Impact, the number of producers will increase from three to ten by 2003, with Japan entering the market. At present, mPP is produced only in the United States and Western Europe.

Currently mPP is used primarily in fiber applications. "However, by the year 2003, its use will expand to include injection molding and film applications," says Dr. Surinder Bahl, project manager and author of the study. Dr. Bahl also predicts that injection-molding applications will replace fiber applications as the leader in volume, followed by film and then fiber applications.

Dr. Bahl notes that while first-generation metallocene catalysts have limited product capability and produce polypropylene resins that exhibit a much lower melting point than conventional resins, they produce excellent products for fibers and thin wall molding. Polypropylene resins produced with these catalysts do not need any post-reactor treatment like controlled rheology (CR) resins. "This now only eliminates the cost associated with CR resins, but also the related bad odor and taste problems," he says.
For more information, contact Dr. Bahl at (281) 873-8733 or E-mail at townsend@ptai.com.

St. Louis, MO-based plastics manufacturer Sinclair & Rush Inc. has announced the purchase of Flexible Moulding, a manufacturer of custom-vinyl, dip-molded products for the medical, construction, electronic and transportation industries.

Flexible Moulding was a division of United Moulders Ltd. of Great Britain. According to Sinclair & Rush, the company should increase sales by 50 percent with this acquisition. The purchase also provides additional manufacturing capacity for Sinclair & Rush and its European subsidiary.

"The combination of Flexible Moulding's expertise in designing specialized custom products and Sinclair & Rush's large sales and marketing organization should prove very beneficial to our customers," says Brad Stack, president and COO of Sinclair & Rush.

There are no plans to consolidate facilities in the United Kingdom. Sinclair & Rush will continue to operate Flexible Moulding's plant in Aldershot, England, as well as its own facility in Maidstone, England. All administrative functions for both companies will be handled at the Maidstone location.

New Jersey-based AlliedSignal Plastics and the Bayer Group, Leverkusen, Germany, announced in August an agreement that will provide Pennsylvania-based Bayer Corp. with polyamide 6 resin in North America and AlliedSignal Polymers GmbH with caprolactam, a polyamide 6 precursor, in Europe.

AlliedSignal Plastics and the Bayer Plastics Business Group are among the world's leading suppliers of nylon 6 resin for use in engineering plastics applications. AlliedSignal's Capron, Nypel, Infinity and Petra resins, as well as Bayer's Durethan and Triax resins, are widely used in automotive components, packaging films, wire and cable jacketing, electronic components, lawn and power tool products and other engineering plastics applications.

The first plastic "behind-the-needle" solution designed to reduce the risk of needle stick injury has been licensed to Elkay Products Inc., company of the Venture Capital unit of The CIT Group. The product was developed by Shrewsbury, MA-based Elkay using patented technology from Sticksafe LLC of Mansfield, MA.

The lid incorporates an elastomeric membrane that can be penetrated by a syringe with up to a 14-gauge needle or a cannula alone to dispense a sample. The sample can then be withdrawn from the container through the self-sealing membrane without compromising leak-resistance. In addition to the self-sealing membrane, a second port facilitates sample removal with a pipette, inoculating loop or other aspirating device.

According to the company, the product has been successfully tested at medical centers throughout the United States and has withstood the rigors of pneumatic transportation systems without loss of sample integrity.

Mediapak Corp., reportedly the world's largest maker of compact disc jewel cases, has acquired Alpha Enterprises Inc. and Joyce Molding Corp. in two separate transactions totaling $299 million. The acquisitions expand Mediapak's capacity and product lines of packaging for compact discs, VHS video cassettes and DVD discs sold in North America and Europe.

Based in Atlanta, GA, Mediapak was established in 1999 by Palladium Equity Partners LLC to acquire Atlanta Precision Molding Co. and Europe Precision Molding BV from Mitsubishi Corp.

The combined company has pro forma revenues of approximately $250 million and will have eight manufacturing facilities in the United States and Canada.

A resolution recommending that California SB 332 and SB1110 not be crafted so that recyclable plastic containers can be replaced by un-recycled, non-conforming containers was passed by the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers to the California Assembly Committee on Natural Resources and Assembly Appropriations Committee.

"We would hate to see a move away from the use of recyclable plastics," said Bill O'Grady, chairman of APR and vice president of Talco Plastics in Long Beach, CA. "Especially because of a bill that is designed to enhance recycling for California," he said.

Plastics Machining & Fabricating
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