May 2021

Manila Bulletin

From shoe soles, refrigerators, to clothes, car tires, and medical supplies, natural rubber is a common denominator that keeps the quality of these products at their best. Rubber is a raw material that plays a critical role in our daily lives. However, climate change, capitalism, and diseases pose major threats to the rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis) around the world. Sadly, rubber is part of the European Union’s list of critical raw materials.

Injection molder Technimark partners with iMFLUX and Rhinostics to produce polypropylene nasal swabs that reduce patient discomfort while improving sample concentration. Meanwhile, an MIT spinoff company is using algorithms and 3D printing to build a better swab.

NST Online

Almost all packaging for food and beverages, medical, construction and engineering sectors is made of non-biodegradable plastics. Non biodegradable plastics such as Polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) covers almost 80 per cent of carrier bags, bottles, sheets and films.

Plastics Technology

We recently heard from Dr. Keith Hechtel, senior director of business development at Curbell Plastics, Inc.–a leading supplier of plastic sheets, rods, tubes, films, tapes, adhesivies, sealants and prototyping materials, on what he considers to be 10 major trends in performance plastics these days.

Plastics Technology

“Two new products targeted to PET preforms, bottles and other PET packaging have been added by Ampacet to its portfolio of ScratchShield additive masterbatches that help to protect plastic products against scratch and abrasion without impacting gloss or mechanical properties of the resin.
The new ScratchShield masterbatch additives are said to minimize the appearance of scuffs and scratches in preforms, bottles and a range of PET packaging without the need to apply a surface coating.”

PlasticsToday.com

Amcor’s AmSky eliminates PVC in healthcare packaging, which can be problematic to recycle by conventional methods, with polyethylene (PE) thermoform blister and lidding film.

Brands adopting the no-cost Plastic IQ digital planning tool from The Recycling Partnership and SystemIQ include Colgate-Palmolive, Kellogg’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé USA, Unilever, and Walmart.

Tech HQ

The global chip shortage is squeezing sales at Apple, BMW, and Ford Motor – with a return to normalcy not expected until next year. Experts reckon that the second quarter is going to be worse for automakers than Q1 2021. The gap between ordering a chip, and getting the chip is growing wider

Tire Technology International

“Yokohama claims to have developed the world’s first technology to enable the efficient production of butadiene from biomass. The breakthrough is said to have been achieved at the Bio-monomer Production Laboratory, a facility jointly established by Yokohama, Riken and Zeon. Butadiene is one of the core raw materials needed to produce synthetic rubber for automotive tires. At present, industrial butadiene is produced as a by-product of naphtha pyrolysis.”

Tire Technology International

Evonik Industries says it has developed a new, active filler for the tire industry that significantly improves the traction of winter tires in snowy and slushy conditions. It claims Ultrasil 4000 GR is the first low-surface-area (LSA) silica to also offer very good dispersibility, enabling very high filler levels in the tire tread and improving traction compared with tires using conventional silica.

Traction News

Cooper Tire announced that its stockholders overwhelmingly voted to approve the agreement and plan of merger with Goodyear Tire, which was announced Feb. 22, 2021. At a special meeting of Cooper stockholders held today, approximately 99 percent of votes cast were in favor of the transaction. Goodyear is not required to hold a vote of its stockholders to approve the merger agreement.

BusinessWorld

NESTLÉ PHILIPPINES, Inc. on Friday made new commitments to achieve net zero emissions not later than 2050, including reducing virgin plastics consumption by a third and cutting 30% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in local operations by 2025. “We will cut down virgin plastics consumption by one-third by 2025,” Nestlé Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kais Marzouki said during the firm’s virtual 2021 Net Zero Fair on Friday.

South China Morning Post

The shortage of automotive chips is bringing China’s carmakers and semiconductor suppliers closer together than ever before, with representatives from both industries discussing contingency plans on the sidelines of a recent chip industry event.

NST Online

Top Glove Corp Bhd will work closely with the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) towards the expeditious resolution, revocation and modification of the withhold release order (WRO).

The Jakarta Post

A study by consulting firm McKinsey & Company showed that electric motorcycles would pave the way for electric vehicle (EV) adoption in Indonesia as the bikes would become cost-competitive with regular motorcycles by 2022.

NST Online

Sanichi Technology Bhd’s latest corporate manoeuvre is to diversify into lucrative rubber glove industry via the issuance of up to 1.42 billion renounceable rights issue.