Speculation that something was amiss with the internet trading platform for plastics Omnexus (Europe: CH-8804 Au / Wädenswil; www.omnexus.com) had been running rampant since the company cancelled its presence at the “Fakuma” trade exhibition in mid October. Now it is official: the platform found in internet hype year 2000 has been shut down, effective the end of November.

Engineering thermoplastics heavyweights BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont and Ticona jointly put up USD 50m to launch Omnexus as a reaction to the establishment of other, independent, platforms – which also proved to be short-lived. Although more than 20 plastics manufacturers, distributors and machinery producers eventually participated, the high hopes placed in the joint platform were not fulfilled, as this form of trading apparently never quite caught on. Almost all resins manufacturers serve their customers through their own dedicated portals. The final crunch came when Bayer pulled out and the remaining partners used the opportunity to let the expensive project, requiring an annual investment of USD 6.5m, quietly die.