To strengthen its presence in Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa, adhesives manufacturer HB Fuller (Saint Paul, Minnesota / USA; www.hbfuller.com) is building a new plant near the Egyptian capital of Cairo. At the end of 2022, the current sales and production unit is to move into the 37,000 m² building in “CPC Industrial Park”. This will be accompanied by a doubling of current production capacities. HB Fuller produces adhesives in Egypt for use in packaging films, paper-plastic laminates and labels.

At the same time, the US company, worth USD 2.8 bn (EUR 2.38 bn) by sales, is working with Covestro (Leverkusen / Germany; www.covestro.com) to develop reactive hot-melt adhesives for biodegradable films and paper-film laminates. The renewable raw material content, which HB Fuller obtains from Covestro, is calculated according to the mass balance principle. The resulting “Flextra” adhesives have been certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute (www.bpiworld.org) in the US, whose advisory board is dominated by producers such as BASF, TotalCorbion and NatureWorks, among others.