Compounder and distributor of engineering plastics Albis Plastic (Hamburg / Germany; www.albis.com) intends to compound its polymers exclusively in Europe. As a result, the company closed its US compounding plant in Rosenberg, Texas, with a workforce of around 110, at the end of May 2006. It said that more and more plastics producers were first utilising their own capacities before granting orders to contract compounders because of continuing overcapacities on the US market and significant structural changes in the industry. In contrast to the German parent company, which mainly develops and markets its own compound specialities, Albis Plastic Corp (Rosenberg, Texas / USA) operated predominantly as a contract compounder for large international plastics producers.

Although Albis has managed to expand its position in the US in the last few years with the development and marketing of its own compound specialties, the growth rates in this field have not been sufficient to balance out the "dramatic decline" in contract orders. Customers in the United States, Canada and Mexico will in future be serviced by a team of sales representatives.

At the same time, Albis wants to intensify its marketing activities in Europe. For this purpose, it has established a subsidiary under the name Albis Plastik Turkye (Istanbul / Turkey) in Turkey, which it regards as a large market with interesting prospects. The company said the Turkish plastics processing industry is growing fast and, with around 6,000 customers, offers plenty of potential.