You can read the complete September issue of British Plastics & Rubber on the internet.

A joint marketing operation to sell microcellular foam moulding on small injection moulding machines with the emphasis on electrical and electronic components has been set up by Trexel of the USA and Arburg of Germany.

BASF has entered the biocide business with a grade of its Luran ASA. Luran S BX 13042 is said to be the only ASA with an antimicrobial effect, and uses silver as the antimicrobial agent.

Canon and Toray Industries are claiming the world's highest level of flame retardance for a bio-sourced plastic with a grade of Toray's Ecodear PLA which will be used in exterior plastic parts for Canon multifunction office systems.

The next Interplas exhibition will be held in 2011 from September 27 - 29 at the NEC in Birmingham.

Rhodia is to restructure its European nylon business to reflect the slower growth in Western Europe than in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Using less material to make a product is not necessarily going to bring a corresponding reduction in its cost. That's the message from British Polythene Industries.

Italian compounder SO.F.TER. has acquired the European subsidiary - also based in Italy - of American compounder Matrixx Group.

Family-owned German injection machine builder Arburg has opened another technical centre in its worldwide network.

Part of Hexion Specialty Chemicals' epoxy business is to be sold to a Czech company as a condition of Hexion's purchase of Huntsman Corporation.

The strategic review of its operations, which RPC instigated in June as rising costs threatened future profitability, has concluded already that at least six plants and two businesses must go.

The future of an ageing ethylene plant at the Ineos Grangemouth site is in question as the company starts a review of its operations there.

The UK arm of German extruder Rehau is cutting jobs at its Blaenau Ffestiniog plant in Gwynedd and moving its automotive business overseas.

The former Bunzl group plastics components and fibres producer Filtrona is to buy an American foam products company.

Brazilian petrochemicals company Braskem has started producing the bio-sourced polypropylene it announced as a development project a year ago.

Eastman has stepped up promotion for its Tritan copolyester in infant care products as an alternative to polycarbonate and the baggage of the bisphenol A debate.

A line to make medical grade high strength polyethylene fibre is to be installed at DSM Dyneema's Greenville factory in North Carolina, USA.

The first round of Huntsman's fight to force Hexion to complete its takeover of the company has gone to Huntsman.

Ineos Nova is to cut European polystyrene production, following similar moves announced by BASF in mid-September and Dow in July.

Winner of this year's Horners' Award for Plastics Design and Innovation, presented this week at Interplas, is Durakerb which makes kerbstones from recycled materials.

A service to sell redundant plastics processing equipment and raw materials at no charge has been introduced by STV.

The continuing restructure of Trelleborg's automotive fluid sealing business is now to bring job cuts in France.

German screen changer and filter manufacturer Kreyenborg has set up a separate company to build the infra red dryer.

A cost-saving process for making methyl methacrylate has been unveiled by Evonik Industries, with a full scale plant about to enter the planning stage.

New director of UK sales at Hozelock is Richard Carr, who joins the company from Spear & Jackson.

The PolyMirae joint venture between Daelim and LyondellBasell is to use LyondellBasell's Metocene PP technology for one of its Spheripol lines in Yeosu, Korea.

Amcor is to sell its Camvac flexible barrier film plant in Thetford to UK based holding company Gil Investments.

Ticona is to expand resources at its Nanjing complex in China with an LCP plant.

American bio-plastics producer Cereplast is gearing up for greater volumes and restructuring its manufacturing operations with the start-up of production at its Seymour, Indiana, facility where it will now concentrate all its core manufacturing assets.

Continued conversion to its proprietary Advantex process is reducing the environmental penalties of glass fibre reinforcement manufacturing for Owens Corning.

British and Irish job cuts are to be trebled by Dutch pipe make Wavin.

A 220,000 tonnes LDPE plant is to be built at Bratislava in the Slovak Republic with a start-up date of 2012.

Sales of German-built plastics and rubber machinery are likely to fall in 2009 relative to continued growth through 2007 and into this year.

PET bottle analysis specialist Agr International has joined with SIPA of Italy, which makes stretch blow moulding systems, to integrate its PETWall Profiler into SIPA's rotary blow moulders.

A rotor intended to prevent problems when shredding waste film, textile filaments and tape has been designed by Weima of Germany for use in its WLK single shaft shredder.

Buyers of plastic products must accept the need for prices to rise, says the European Plastics Converters Association, urging its members to pass on cost increases in full and as they arise.

The Alternative Waste Solutions Eco Plastics site at Hemswell in Lincolnshire, which recently received a £6·1million cash injection to enable it to produce food-grade recyclate, has become fully operational in mixed plastics recycling.

The cost of Spanish oil company Repsol's expansion of its Sines petrochemicals complex in Portugal will be in excess of Eur 1 billion.

PolyOne Corporation is joining with agricultural processing giant Archer Daniels Midland Company to develop plasticisers sourced from corn and oil seeds.

The latest polystyrene producer to throttle back production because of reduced demand is BASF.

Amcor Flexibles today opened a Eur 5 million medical packaging facility at its Sligo, Ireland, site.

A bacterial route to increasing the value of reclaimed PET has been devised at University College in Dublin, Ireland where a group of researchers has found a way to convert waste PET bottles to a higher value material.

Two senior directors at Cincinnati Extrusion, Erich Hauk, managing director of sales, and Hans Berlisg, managing director of marketing and services, will retire at the end of this year.

Testing specialist Gammadot Rheology is establishing a new Centre for Cure which includes the first of a new design of curemeter to be installed at a testing company.

Worries about bisphenol A (BPA) which have been causing much concern in North America came to Britain last night in a misleading report on BBC's News at Ten.

Lanxess is to invest Eur 35 million at its Antwerp site in Belgium to increase the capacity of its caprolactam plant by 10 per cent by 2010.

Capacity for DSM's Stanyl polyamide 46 has doubled with the opening of a second polymerisation plant at the Chemelot site at Geleen in the Netherlands.

ExxonMobil Chemical has extended its speciality compounding business through a compounding agreement with Resin & Pigment Technologies of Singapore, while SABIC is to make its Stamax long glass fibre polypropylene compounds available worldwide.

Dunlop Latex Foam - the Dunlopillo brand - is to be broken up after administrators failed to find a buyer for the company as a going concern.

A second plant is to be opened in Britain by Closed Loop Recycling, this time in North Wales.

Several new plastics plants have started up worldwide over the past few weeks.

BASF is making a friendly bid to buy Ciba.

The long-standing industry brands of Werner & Pfleiderer extruders and Waeschle materials handling equipment look set to disappear as the Coperion Group of Germany more closely integrates its businesses under its own name.

Finnish packaging group Huhtamaki is separating its rigid plastics consumer goods operations into a separate division with the likelihood of selling it.

Perspex producer Lucite International is considering a sale or public flotation and investment banks Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch are to assess the options.

Testing, research and consultancy company Smithers Rapra Technology has been re-organised into two operating companies by making its information business a new entity, called iSmithers.

A new role of deputy chief executive has been created at Borealis, and Herbert Willerth has been appointed to fill it.