New alliances are constantly emerging in the global plastics raw materials sector: the M.A. Hanna Company (200 Public Square, Cleveland, Ohio 44114-2304 / USA) and the Japanese UBE Industries Ltd., Tokyo, have founded a 50:50 worldwide joint venture for polyamide compounds. The new company is to produce and market PA 6, 6.6 and 12 in North America, Europe and China. The UBE-Hanna Compounding Company has already been set up in North America. Comparable companies will shortly be following in Europe and China. UBE is the biggest Japanese producer of caprolactam-based polyamides for the plastics industry. Hanna claims to be one of the world's leading independent compounders of thermoplastics and rubber.

The Hanna / UBE deal has to be viewed in the context of Hanna's strategic aim to considerably expand its engineering compounds for plastics processing (see Plasteurope.com 10, 1998). With UBE, Hanna is not only expanding its polyamide capacity but is also offering PA 12 for the first time. In Europe, Hanna's subsidiary, Theodor Bergmann Kunststoffwerk GmbH (D-76571 Gaggenau), is seeing its range consistently expanded as a result.

READER SERVICE: Company portrait information on M.A. Hanna International: PIE-No. 42637 – 1997 Annual Report of the M.A. Hanna Company: PIE-No. 42638.