Cooper Tire & Rubber acquires Standard Products.

Cooper Tire & Rubber acquires Standard Products

Cooper Tire & Rubber, Findlay, OH, completed the acquisition of The Standard Products Company. The combination makes Cooper North America's largest manufacturer of automotive sealing systems, a core product in its automotive group, and will also significantly expand the company's global presence, a key element in its strategic growth plan. On a combined basis, the company expects to generate approximately $3.2 billion in annual revenues in its first full year of operation, of which approximately half will come from tire operations and half from automotive products.

Wynn's International, Orange, CA, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Goshen Rubber, headquartered in Goshen, IN. Goshen is a privately held manufacturer of o-rings, seals, gaskets and other rubber, plastic and urethane products, with annual revenues of approximately $172.6 million for its fiscal year ended June 30, 1999. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Wynn's will provide total consideration of approximately $85 million at the closing to purchase all of the outstanding stock of Goshen and to retire Goshen's outstanding bank debt. Wynn's expects that for calender year 2000, the acquisition will boost its consolidated revenues by about 40%.

Dow Plastics, Midland, MI, continued to progress with its plans to commercialize Index Interpolymers by starting up the Index Interpolymers product development plant in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Dow also continues ongoing product and application development, and several foam applications based on Index Interpolymers have already been commercialized. A grass-roots facility, the Index Interpolymers product development plant has an annual production capacity of 50 million pounds (22,700 metric tons).

In line with a corporate branding unification initiative, Dyneon, Oakdale, MN, will position the Fluorel brand family of products under the Dyneon umbrella tradename. As a result, Fluorel fluoroelastomers will officially become Dyneon fluoroelastomers. Dyneon fluoroelastomers are typically used in the manufacture of o-rings, seals, gaskets and other components for industries such as automotive, chemical processing and aerospace.

FMC Lithium Division, Gastonia, NC, plans to increase its worldwide butyllithium production capacity by 1.6 million pounds. The new capacity will be gained through production debottlenecking at FMC's butyllithium facilities in North America and the United Kingdom. The capacity increase is expected to be completed by 2001. Butyllithium is used as an initiator in the production of high performance synthetic elastomers.

Shamrock Technologies, Dayton, NJ, a processor of micronized polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), announced plans to establish a European headquarters in Belgium in the year 2000. The company entered into a sales agreement to purchase a 6.2-acre building site in Tongeren, Limburg Province. A 108,000 sq. ft. facility is planned that will house corporate offices, manufacturing and laboratories.

UCB, Brussels, Belgium, officially opened its production unit for specialty OPP (bi-oriented polypropylene) films in Craigieburn, Melbourne, Australia. These specialty films are for food packaging and for new applications, including self-adhesive labels, overwrap and polymeric base for bank notes.

U.K.-based TI Group plc, the global specialized engineering company, has completed the acquisition of Busak+Shamban, a leader in polymer engineering, for a consideration of DM800 million (approximately $446 million), following the granting of full regulatory approval. Busak+Shamban will join with TI Group's existing Forsheda business in a new division to be called TI Group Specialty Products, which is said to form one of the world's strongest polymer sealing companies. On a pro forma basis, the combined 1998 sales of the new polymer grouping would have been about $652 million.

T.A. Knight, a specialist in supplying high quality molds to the rubber industry, has quadrupled capacity with the addition of new machines and the increase to double dayshift working. This has been part of a major planned expansion which included relocating to premises with a floor space of 6,100 sq. ft. adjacent to the M1 at Leicester, U.K.'s Meridian Park.

Degussa-Huls AG, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, has raised annual production capacity for dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) by 50,000 tons since last year. The company is now able to produce a total of 480,000 tpa of DMT at its two facilities in Lulsdorf near Cologne and Steyerberg in Lower Saxony. Systematic development of the production process for this polyester pre-product has enabled the company to raise capacity at each site to 240,000 tpa. DMT is used in the production of man-made fibers for the textile industry, industrial fibers, for example for safety belts and the strings of tennis rackets, and fibers for tires and high-pressure hoses.

Degussa-Huls AG plans to invest over DM 500 million in its silane businesses, which comprise chlorosilanes and organosilanes. About DM 200 million of this will be used to increase production capacity for sulfur-functional organosilanes by two thirds by the beginning of 2002. Sulfur-functional silanes are key raw materials for the rubber industry, especially tires. A further DM 300 million will be spent on expanding the business with chlorosilanes and other organosilanes. Most of this investment will be completed by 2002. Chlorosilanes are precursors for semiconductor silicone, synthetic quartz glass and pyrogenic silicas. Outside the rubber industry, organosilanes are used as coupling agents for fiberglass, plastics, adhesives, paint and coatings.

Insilco Ltd., headquartered in New Delhi, India, acquired the silica plant of Anandeya Silica Division of Metazinc (India) Ltd. in Patalganga/Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Through this purchase, Insilco, in which Degussa-Huls AG has a 68% share, has meaningfully increased its market presence and leadership in precipitated silicas and silicates in India. Its biggest customers are the rubber, tire and life-science industries. The silica plant in Patalganga has a current annual capacity of 6,000 tons of silicas/aluminum silicate, which will be expanded in a first step to 10,000 tpa.

Montell, Brussels, Belgium, and Thrace Plastics S.A. announced that the sale of Don & Low Ltd. to Thrace Plastics has been completed. Don & Low is a wholly-owned Montell company which makes woven and nonwoven polypropylene textiles in Forfar, Scotland.

Flexfab Molded Products Group, Racine, WI, plans to combine the manufacturing and support operations of sister company Flexfab Elastomerix, Carson, CA, into the company's primary molded products facility in East Troy, WI. FEI's specialty is high quality liquid silicone rubber keypads for a wide range of automotive, medical and electronic devices.

The University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA, announced a master's degree program in elastomeric materials, as well as significantly expanded opportunities for undergraduates. The $1 million project was launched to provide much-needed education, training and research in the area of elastomeric materials. The new named faculty position has been established in conjunction with the program - the Freudenberg-NOK Assistant Professor of Elastomeric Engineering. Freudenberg-NOK has also established 12 scholar-internships for undergraduates.

Synair has broken ground on construction of a state-of-the-art polyol manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, TN. The facility is being built on 50 acres of property and is estimated to cost $14 million to $16 million when completed. The new plant will house both production and research facilities and is expected to employ up to 100 new personnel. The plant will be initially capable of both ethoxylation and propxylation of various base initiators and is designed to yield over 100,000,000 lbs. of products across a wide range of viscosities, molecular weight and reactivities. The plant can be used to produce both polyols and surfactants. Polyols are the building blocks of many synthetic rubber and plastic products, including polyurethanes.

Firestone Building Products, Carmel, IN, is expanding its insulation manufacturing capacity with the construction of a state-of-the-art polyisocyanurate foam insulation plant in DeForest, WI, located near Madison. Scheduled to be on line by the third quarter of 2000, the DeForest facility will be Firestone's eighth polyisocyanurate insulation plant, producing a variety of flat, tapered and composite insulation boards for commercial roofing and residential sheathing applications.

SKM Applied Technology Partners, Radnor, PA, has acquired Modern Plastic Technics, a fully integrated supplier of engineered plastic products and services located in West Berlin, NJ.

Witco, Greenwich, CT, has concluded the sale of its Oleochemicals and Derivatives business to the groups of Goldschmidt AG, Essen, Germany and SKW Trostberg AG. The companies originally announced their intention to complete the asset sale, with a purchase price of $248.9 million, in June. Proceeds from the transaction will be used primarily to reduce short term debt. Assets changing ownership include production sites in Janesville, WI and Mapleton, IL, and three European sites, including Flimby, U.K.; Granollers, Spain; and Steinau, Germany. The sale does not include Witco's facility located in Memphis, TN, an important manufacturing location for products strategic to its Polymer Chemicals and Industrial Specialties businesses. Witco will also maintain ownership of its metal organics plant located adjacent to the Mapleton, IL ODG facility, which is an asset of the Polymer Chemicals Group.

Aristech Chemical, Pittsburgh, PA, has started operation of its new 550 million pounds per year polypropylene line at the company's LaPorte, TX site. The unit was constructed on schedule, and brings Aristech's total capacity to 1.4 billion pounds per year.

United Plastics Group and Aurora Capital Group, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, reached a definitive agreement to purchase both Kiehl Engineering of Bensenville, IL and The Hanson Group of Ludlow, MA. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Kiehl Engineering is a fully integrated custom injection molder of thin wall components and value-added assemblies. The Hanson Group originated as a mold maker and has grown into a full service precision injection molder and mold builder.

Milacron's Plastics Technologies Group is applying its manufacturing strategies to Uniloy's European facilities by rationalizing those operations. A new European manufacturing center will be created near Milan, Italy, which will have state-of-the-art production technologies.

Dover Chemical, Dover, OH, a subsidiary of ICC Industries, announced the expansion of its DP-4 HiPure, trisnonylphenyl phosphite (TNPP) production capacity at the company's ISO 9001 certified plant in Dover, OH.

Quality registrations

Alcan Rubber & Chemical, Uniontown, OH, a distributor of chemicals, additives and materials for the rubber, plastic, coating and adhesive markets, received ISO 9002: 1994 certification for its quality system. This certification covers Alcan facilities in Uniontown, OH and New York, NY. The certification includes the trading and distribution of latex, rubber, vegetable oils and chemicals.

Chempac Chemical Packaging, Paducah, KY, received certification from National Quality Assurance Ltd. that its quality management system is compliant with ISO 9002: 1994/QS 9000: 1995. The scope of the registration was for pre-mixing, pre-weighing and packaging of chemicals for the rubber industry and applied to the company's plant in Lawton, OK.

Zinc Corporation of America, Monaca, PA, has earned ISO 9002 registration of its quality management system for the manufacture of zinc oxide, zinc dust and supporting activities.