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South Korean auto supplier Donghee facing OSHA penalties in Alabama

Occupational Safety and Health AdministrationAutomotive parts supplier Donghee Alabama LLC faces proposed penalties from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration for exposing employees to safety hazards at its facility in Auburn, Ala.Staffing agencies J & C Enterprise LLC and Jian Enterprise LLC have also been cited by OSHA. The companies collectively face $145,438 in penalties, according to a June 18 news release.OSHA cited Donghee Alabama and the staffing agencies for exposing employees to caught-in and crushed-by hazards by requiring them to operate machines with nonfunctioning safety laser scanners, which are designed to prevent workers from entering danger zones during operating cycles.The staffing agencies were also cited for exposing workers to hazards from operating machines with nonfunctioning light curtains."Hazards associated with the auto parts manufacturing industry are a source of serious injuries and fatalities to workers," Jose Gonzalez, OSHA's acting area director, said in a statement. "Employers are required by law to comply with lockout/tagout and machine guarding standards to protect workers who operate equipment."OSHA said the companies have 15 days from receiving the citations to contest the findings.Donghee Alabama is a U.S. subsidiary of parent company Donghee Industrial Co. Ltd. in South Korea. The company manufactures plastic fuel tanks, pedal and suspension modules and various electromagnetic parts.source : https://www.plasticsnews.com

editor 2019-07-06

Escalating tariffs signal caution for China investments

Escalating tariffs signal caution for China investmentsGuangzhou, China — The escalating trade conflict between the United States and China was prompting some plastics investors to hit the pause button at the massive Chinaplas trade fair this week — with Chinese compounder Top Polymer Enterprise among them.The uncertainty around tariffs was causing the Liyang, China-based firm to delay a $15 million investment in its first factory in the United States, near Atlanta, as both its supply chains and profits were taking a hit from rising tariffs."Right now, the environment is difficult for everyone, although at the moment it's the worst case scenario," President Marcus Tsong said in an interview at the company's booth at Chinaplas, which ran May 21-24 in Guangzhou and drew an estimated 180,000 attendees.Tsong said his company remains firmly committed to moving ahead on its U.S. investment and hopes to complete it in early 2020. Original plans called for the factory to open this month.But the back and forth over relations between the two countries has slowed the company's planning. Tsong's caution echoed others at the fair, which with 3,500 exhibiting firms ranks as one of the world's two largest plastics shows.U.S. extrusion equipment maker Davis-Standard LLC, for example, noted that tariffs are causing its customers in China to put their orders for machines from the company's U.S. factories on hold.Steve Toloken Sekaran Murugaiah, vice president of business development Asia Pacific for Davis-Standard LLC.He said U.S.-built Davis-Standard machines being exported to China will face much higher tariffs starting June 1, because they're in a block of goods targeted in Beijing's response to President Donald Trump's recent decision to raise tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion in Chinese exports.For Davis-Standard, China tariffs on those U.S. machines will rise from 5 percent to 25 percent."We have got customers [in China] now putting their investment plans for machinery from the U.S. on hold," he said. "We've already had that happen. They've not canceled orders. There's a wait and see thing."One Chinese executive said the escalating tariffs in the last few weeks — a reversal of the sense that a deal between the governments was at hand — seemed to stop what had been a recovery in plastics machinery markets in China in March and April.Richard Yan, CEO of publicly traded Chinese injection machine maker Yizumi Precision Machinery Co. Ltd., said plastics industry customers had ramped up purchasing in April in anticipation of a deal between Washington and Beijing."Now the situation has changed and customers are hesitating. It's a matter of confidence," Yan said. "People are now back to waiting and seeing."Challenging conditions2018 had been a more challenging year in China's industry. For example, the country's largest plastics machinery maker, Haitian International Holdings Ltd., told its shareholders in the Hong Kong stock exchange that the "U.S.-initiated" trade fight "has weakened investors' confidence."Chinaplas organizer Adsale Exhibition Services Ltd. noted that China's output of plastic products increased by only 1.1 percent in 2018, influenced by a volatile market and tougher environmental policies on industry.Chinese equipment maker Cosmos Machinery Enterprises Ltd. said it too has felt the impact of trade tensions.Business slowed in the second half of 2018, and the last few weeks of tariffs and counter tariffs trade issues further hurt sentiment, said Stephen Wong, executive vice chairman of the Hong Kong-based firm."In the machinery field, it's not the actual impact on us but the uncertainty that will make people nervous about future investment," he said.Chinaplas 2019Dow Inc. was among the international companies at Chinaplas 2019.Escalating tariffsLike Davis-Standard, compounder Top Polymer faces escalating tariffs.The maker of thermoplastic copolyesters and styrenic block compounds will now face 25 percent tariffs on some of its shipments from China to the United States, up from 10 percent.To keep its market volumes up ahead of building its new factory in Georgia, the company is shipping materials from China, paying the higher tariffs and seeing its margins take a big hit."We have to have some volume ready before the plant is ready," Tsong said. "We have to tolerate a loss."But he argued that the tariffs are also hurting U.S. plastics makers.Tsong said that's because Top Polymer has been importing significant supplies of raw materials from U.S. plastics firms, including Kraton Corp. and Dow Inc., to make its materials.But with those U.S. products now facing tariffs in China, his company is no longer buying from the U.S. directly and is looking domestically and elsewhere for new suppliers.In spite of the difficulties, though, he said his small company, which employs about 150 in two factories in China, remains committed to its U.S. investment. It sees a strong business case for the U.S. factory, in part to be closer to decision makers in multinational firms, he said.Other material suppliers at the show were also having to managing tariffs and hoping they would endSteve TolokenMartin Pavlik, director of business development, for SI Group, based in Schenectady, N.Y.But for some specialty products going between the two countries, it's not possible to shift production and the company risks losing business, Martin Pavlik, director of business development, said."What you lose is competitiveness in price because there are local producers in Asia or producers in Europe that are not affected," he said. "Although we have a lot of products that are benchmarks in the industry, it's all about the cost."We don't see right now an erosion of sales because we are putting a lot of different efforts in place but how long we will be able to hold, is a question of time," he added in an interview at the company's booth.A regional executive in Dow Inc.'s packaging and specialty plastics business said the company has been able in general to manage the tariff impacts in his unit by shifting sourcing around among its global production base.Bambang Candra, Dow's Singapore-based commercial vice president of packaging and specialty plastics for Asia Pacific, said it is still seeing healthy 10-20 percent annual demand growth for their plastics in packaging products in China."When you're talking about packaging, we believe the fundamental demand is still there," Candra said.The U.S. plastics materials industry has argued strongly against tariffs by either country, with its lobbying organizations like the American Chemistry Council saying they harm U.S. exports to China, now the world's largest plastics market.ACC said in early May that the tariffs are starting to damage the industry's supply chain and hurt the competitiveness of the U.S. petrochemical industry.But companies in other parts of the U.S. plastics industry have welcomed tariffs on items such as plastic packaging and vinyl flooring, saying that they face unfair competition from China. Tariff advocates say China's industrial policies advantage its industry, and they say tariffs will mean more jobs in their U.S. factories.While the mood at the trade show was generally against tariffs and trade conflicts, the mood within the larger U.S. industry is more split.That may be in part because the United States runs an annual deficit of about $11.5 billion with China's plastics industry, with deficits in plastic products, machinery and molds. Only the resin sector has a surplus with China, reaching $2.7 billion in 2017.source : www.plasticsnews.com

Editor 2019-06-02

Engel introduces Wintec to Mexico

David Liu, area sales manager, left, and Michael Feltes, president - sales and service for Wintec at Plastimagen 2019.Engel de Mexico showed the Wintec injection molding press to a Mexican trade show audience for the first time at Plastimagen 2019.Wintec presses, made in China, are a lower-cost line from the high-end Engel brand of molding machines, executives of Engel and Wintec said at Engel's news conference at Plastimagen.At the show, a Wintec t-win press with 650 metric tons of clamping force molded carrying cases — a popular giveaway item at the show.Austria-based Engel set up Wintec in China as a separate brand about five years ago. At first, Wintec focused its sales efforts on Asia. But Wintec President Michael Feltes said the company is expanding its global reach — now to Mexico.Talking about Mexico's big automotive sector, Feltes said Wintec presses are typically used by Tier 2 and Tier 3 molders. The company targets other types of molding as well.Feltes explained the difference between Wintec and Engel injection molding machines:"Engel is known for highly engineered, very technical, very complex machines, and there comes a price tag with such high-tech equipment. But there is a huge market for injection molding machines globally that doesn't require all those special features and options," Feltes said.He said Engel was faced with two options: Make a lower-end product that has the Engel name, or create a product and market as a separate brand."We chose to market it as a different brand, simply because the customer base is a totally different one," Feltes said. "The people who buy Wintec products, they are more short-term oriented companies and projects. The Engel customers buy project-oriented equipment."Peter Auinger, general director of Engel de Mexico in Querétaro, echoed those comments, saying: "We try not to compete with each other. We will not compete at the same time, for the same project, Wintec and Engel."Feltes said Wintec presses "are more simple" than Engel machines, which come with thousands of special options. Wintec presses have about 200 options — far fewer than Engel but more than competing Asian machines molding machines that typically come with 70 to 120 options."All the [Wintec] machines are standardized. They're highly configured, with a very small degree of engineering, for customer orders. This way we can also lower the price to the market," Feltes said."Wintec have quality, but are more simple in configuration," he said.Another strong point for Wintec customers — access to Engel's large global spare parts and service operations, which Feltes said employ 1,000 people at five hubs, including in Mexico and the United States. Parts typically can be delivered in 24 to 48 hours.Plastimagen visitors to Engel's booth also could see a 160-tonne Engel e-cap press turning out caps.

Editor 2019-04-22

Preparing for future mobility means staying 'ahead' of the challenges

Preparing for future mobility means staying 'ahead' of the challengesMichael A. MarcotteEugenio Toccalino, global marketing director of transportation and advanced polymers at DowDuPont Inc. speaks at the Jan. 15 Plastics and Rubber in Automotive conference.Novi, Mich. — If there is one aspect of the automotive industry that is consistent, it is that "change is unavoidable."That's what Eugenio Toccalino, global marketing director of transportation and advanced polymers at global chemical giant DowDuPont Inc., said during a presentation at the Jan. 15 Plastics and Rubber in Automotive conference."We read about the big announcements from OEMs in terms of huge investments to retool themselves and become an [autonomous vehicle] or a hybrid [electric vehicle] provider," he said.Follow that up with news about technology companies like Google affiliate Waymo LLC that have made substantial investments to be a top player in self-driving vehicles and new business models for shared mobility as well as bold statements like the "the internal combustion engine is dead," Toccalino explained.And it's these sort of news headlines — "change is coming whether you are ready or not, so you better have a strategy" — that are compelling plastics companies, specifically materials suppliers like DowDuPont, or the soon-to-be new DuPont, to prepare for these big changes by developing products that provide answers to OEMs and their suppliers."Growth doesn't come for free," Toccalino said of the approaching challenges and disruption for automotive and materials.'Ahead' of the changeLater this year, Toccalino will continue to work in the transportation and advanced polymers business unit for the new DuPont, as DowDuPont prepares to separate into three independent companies. The "new DuPont," as he referred to it, announced in September 2018 how it would tackle the growing market for electric and hybrid-electric vehicles with the launch of its Ahead initiative.Ahead, or Accelerating Hybrid-Electric Autonomous Driving, targets the use of adhesives, high-performance elastomers, engineered thermoplastics, fluids or specialty lubricants and electronic materials for lightweighting, battery pack components and assembly, thermal management and safety, electric motors, powertrains and chassis, electrical applications and support infrastructure such as charging stations."When we think about the car of the future, there is going to be a totally new set of challenges on the material lab or on the engineering department for an OEM, Tier 1 or us," he said, later describing this car of tomorrow as a "smartphone on wheels."Thermal management is going to emerge as a main requirement for materials as the auto industry moves toward battery electric vehicles, he said. This means fire safety, too, when you have a 600-volt battery that makes up the floor of the vehicle.Noise, vibration and harshness properties are another key area for materials, he said, as the car of the future transitions from a driving environment to a working or lounging environment."The tolerance for any sort of squeak, rattle or noise is much lower," Toccalino said. "You don't have the engine to mask that."In addition, lightweighting, which has long helped the industry meet requirements for fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions, will become more important to get extended range, lower vehicle weight and reduce cost overall. Connectivity, he said, will require the creation of more jobs on the electronics side in automotive and for the necessary infrastructure.In terms of shared mobility, durability will become more important as different passengers hop in and out more frequently and the vehicles will be running for longer periods of time — perhaps as much as 23 hours a day, Toccalino said.Audrey LaForestBASF Corp.'s Mark Szendro and Dalia Naamani-Goldman.Changing componentsAt the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, chemical company BASF Corp. was also looking ahead at challenges facing materials in an electric and/or autonomous vehicle future.Dalia Naamani-Goldman, BASF's market segment manager for transportation and performance materials, said she is seeing more and more "electrification of functions" in vehicles, where certain operations like a parking brake that were once mechanical functions are now electric."Any time you're moving to electronic components, you need materials that can withstand voltage, that can withstand — in the case of electrification — high-voltage for the potential of flammability," she said during an interview at the auto show, adding that future models of electric vehicles are expected to have 1,000 volts. "You need special materials that can enable each of these components."With autonomous driving and the introduction of more electric vehicles, components will be smaller and there will be much more of them, said Mark Szendro, BASF's marketing director for transportation and performance materials."You will have more radar, lidar and sensors in the vehicle that will definitely support the growth of plastics in each vehicle," he explained.Naamani-Goldman said she is also seeing an increased need for multifunctional materials that will continue to grow in the long term."Right now, there's a lot of metal that's used in a lot of these housings: metal for getting heat out, metal for shielding electromagnetic signals. We're working toward developing polymers that already have some of that functionality built into them," Naamani-Goldman said. "We can use a plastic, and it automatically will get some of the heat out."For DuPont, the strategy is to group these different types of challenges and look at the kinds of materials that are required to solve them. That means the potential emergence of new materials with improved heat resistance and that are electrically friendly, have good noise-dampening capabilities, are long-lasting and easy to clean, and can be used as a substitution for heavier materials."All of this challenging change in hybrid, electric, autonomous driving, shared mobility, is not going to happen without collaboration across different value chains," Toccalino said, highlighting key players such has the OEM, Tier 1, Tier 2 and aftermarket suppliers, as well as other companies in the plastics and electronics industries."Essentially, what [DuPont] brings to bear is a set of capabilities that touch different points of the value chain," he said. "The key point is developing new materials and developing them much faster."source :

Editor 2019-02-16

South Korean battery maker investing $1.6B in Georgia production

South Korean battery maker investing $1.6B in Georgia productionSK Innovation Co.With demand for lithium ion batteries expected to skyrocket, SK Innovation Co. has opened a factory in Hungary, shown, and plans to begin construction next year on a plant in Georgia.Anticipated future demand for electrified vehicle batteries is leading to a $1.67 billion factory project in northern Georgia.South Korean lithium ion battery producer SK Innovation Co. is not revealing who its customers will be, but SK will begin construction early next year on the plant in Commerce, Ga., about an hour northeast of Atlanta, with plans to employ 2,000 workers producing an annual volume of lithium ion batteries equal to 9.8 gigawatt-hours by 2022.SK has not unveiled details on production in Georgia, but on its website the company says it supplies the entire value chain for lithium ion batteries, from the film separator to the entire battery pack. It also has a proprietary separator technology in which a ceramic coating is applied to a thin polyethylene material, allowing for thinner film with higher strength, stability and heat resistance.SK already has production in Asia and in Hungary.For the subsidiary of SK Group of Seoul, that volume — expressed in energy storage terms rather than units of production — will substantially increase its electrified vehicle battery output. But it is still a drop in the bucket compared with the industry's projected need. That unmet need is a big new potential opportunity for states and communities trying to recruit the auto industry.Andrew Fulbrook, IHS Markit executive director of light-vehicle powertrain research and analysis, said battery production forecasts continue to swell.Last year, IHS estimated that the global industry will require battery production capacity equal to 305 gigawatt-hours of power storage in 2025 to supply the number of electrified vehicles automakers want to build. That battery forecast was eight times the current global capacity.But Fulbrook says that forecast has risen sharply this year alone."Our latest expectation is that global capacity for automotive traction batteries will need to rise to over 550 gigawatt-hours in 2025 in order to satisfy our latest demand projections," he said.But the sector's future is not yet in focus. Which battery producer will supply which automaker is far from clear. And the map that will guide future investment is not yet drawn.Still, the industry believes battery plants will need to be near the assembly lines that will build the electrified vehicles.For that reason, Georgia's location amid auto factories in the Southeast was a key factor in SK Innovation's site decision, said Tom Croteau, deputy commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. The Commerce location also gives SK space to expand, he said.Croteau maintains that electric and hybrid vehicles are the future and SK Innovation will be part of it."The auto industry is a key target for Georgia, so anything related to automotive manufacturing is of interest to us," Croteau said. "When you talk about batteries going into electric vehicles and hybrids, this is the future. And SK Innovation has been around a long time. They are well-established, even though some of these vehicles are very new to us."SK Innovation does not have any U.S. customers, but globally it supplies Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Kia. Hyundai and Mercedes have manufacturing plants nearby in Alabama, as does Honda. A Mazda-Toyota venture has broken ground on a factory in Alabama, and Kia has a plant in Georgia. Also near the SK site is Volkswagen's plant in Chattanooga."We are excited to bolster our presence in the United States by making this investment in Georgia," SK Innovation CEO Jun Kim said in a statement. "SK Innovation is a worldwide leader in the energy industry and this latest investment will allow us to work with the growing automotive industry in the Southeastern United States, ensuring future partnerships for years to come."

Editor 2018-12-25

DJA now distributing LS Mtron presses from Korea in US

Editor 2018-12-25

BASF invests in Chinese 3D printing start-up

▲ BASF SE marks its investment in Prismlab.BASF SE has advanced its 3D printing ambitions with a recent investment in the Chinese 3D printing company Prismlab.The investment was made through BASF's investment arm, BASF Venture Capital GmbH, along with co-investor Sabic Venture, a part of Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corp., a company spokeswoman told PNE on 6 Nov.The spokeswoman, however, declined to comment on the size of the acquisition or its financial details, but said that BASF was the lead investor in the process.Headquartered in Shanghai, Prismlab has developed a patented high-speed, high-precision and low-cost 3D printing process.The investment by BASF will go toward accelerating product development and innovation, as well as the expansion of Prismlab’s global reach, the Ludwigshafen, Germany-based company said in a statement.“The trailblazing technology from Prismlab allows large and stable components, such as medical braces and anatomical models, to be 3D printed for the first time,” Markus Solibieda, managing director of BASF Venture Capital GmbH, said during the signing ceremony. Prismlab’s patented process, “pixel resolution enhanced technology” is based on stereolithography (SLA).Prismlab’s technology, according to BASF, increases the printing resolution without compromising printing speed.As part of the process, and to increase the amount of energy brought into a pixel, Prismlab’s technology divides each pixel in the resin into several small sections, which can be cured individually by exposure to LCD light.This makes the energy input into each pixel significantly higher than similar processes that expose each pixel to light only once.As a result, comparatively large and stable components or numerous parts are printed in the same production step.BASF said the cost-saving feature of the technology can open up opportunities in the footwear and furniture industry.Prismlab also markets 3D printers and other related services.BASF has stepped up its 3D printing activities in recent months, including the acquisition of two European materials suppliers for the technology earlier this summer.The company, through its subsidiary BASF New Business GmbH (BNB), took over the German company Advanc3D Materials GmbH and French firm Setup Performance in July.Earlier in the year, the German chemical giant entered into a strategic partnership with Berlin-based start-up company BigRep to jointly develop materials and printers for industrial customer requirements.

Aeyoung Park 2018-11-07

Engel holds steady despite global economic uncertainties

▲ The new Engel e-motion 120 at Fakuma 2018. (ⓒCaroline Seidel)Despite a slowdown in North America amid trade uncertainty, Engel Holding GmbH expects global sales to reach around 1.6 billion euros ($1.85 billion) for fiscal year 2018-19, marking a 6 percent increase in earnings over last year.Global sales for the 2017-18 fiscal year ending March 31 were 1.51 billion euros ($1.74 billion), up 11 percent from the prior year, company leadership said during an Oct. 17 news conference at Fakuma.The Austrian maker of injection molding presses, robots and automation systems cited Europe as the biggest contributor, making up 53 percent of the company's sales, followed by the Americas at 24 percent and Asia at 22 percent."We see kind of a shift from the previous years due to the current economic situation," Christoph Steger, Engel's chief sales officer, said, citing a 2 percent turnover that shifted from the Americas to Asia.Continued growth in central and Eastern Europe is balancing out a slowdown in the United Kingdom, where the consequences of Britain's exit, or Brexit, from the European Union are resulting in bouts of uncertainty, the company said."People are a bit reluctant with investments at the moment," Steger said of a "certain reservation" the company is seeing in parts of Europe because of confusion surrounding the Brexit strategy.Germany, specifically, continues to post the highest sales. Over the last five years, Engel has increased its sales by 50 percent in the country, where it employs 340 people across four locations.Revenue growth in Asia has been the biggest for the Engel Group and is continuing to grow, Steger said. Stricter quality requirements in the medical and packaging industries are leading to increased demand, with China as the strongest driver of growth in the region.This past April, Engel said it was investing 10.5 million euros ($12.1 million) into expanding capacity for its Changzhou, China-based Wintec subsidiary. The investment marked the first expansion since the machinery maker launched the Wintec brand of standardized injection presses four years ago.Recent economic developments in North America, however, are not as encouraging, the company said. The region is below last year's level of growth for the fiscal year's second quarter. Engel did not provide any specific figures, however.The company said the slowdown in North America is primarily due to large international conglomerates that are taking a "wait-and-see approach" in response to the latest developments in economic policy.Recent changes, including the Sept. 30 news that Canada will join Mexico and the United States in a revised North American Free Trade Agreement — now called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement — in addition to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of new tariffs covering another $200 billion in Chinese imports, have been something all machinery companies "have to deal with," Steger said.But with a "successor solution" to NAFTA on the table, Steger said Engel is "quite happy" and that many of the company's initial insecurities have been reduced.Tariffs, however, now cover about half of China's imports, with Trump warning China that if it retaliated, he would slap tariffs on another $276 billion worth. Tariffs would cover essentially all of China's imports to the United States and could impact assembly efforts at Engel's York, Pa., site.Engel, which also has a production plant in Shanghai, announced in May it was resuming the assembly of big injection molding machines at its Engel Machinery Inc. facility in York, with the goal of ramping up assembly in the U.S. by the end of 2018. The York factory assembles injection presses with clamping forces from 400-4,000 metric tons."[That's] not getting pushed back, but we are very cautiously watching the situation," Steger said.The plan is to have the first machine assembled in the first quarter of 2019, he said."Everything is still on track. The question is how the tariffs are going to harm the speed of ramping up the production because when it comes to the casting part, you simply, more or less, just get it out of China," Steger explained. "It makes no sense to import these castings to machine them in the U.S. if I have a 25 percent tariff on the castings."Steger said Engel uses several sources for its castings, but the majority of which are in China due to fewer resources in Europe."We would love to get more castings out of Europe," he said. "But there are simply no supplies that could support us."Engel, based in Schwertberg, Austria, employs nearly 7,000 people globally.

Aeyoung Park 2018-11-07