MERGERS/ACQUISITIONS

Valmet has signed a letter of intent to acquire the majority of the assets of a factory owned by Beloit Industrial Ltda., a company located in Campinas, Brazil. The deal includes the site, buildings, and machinery and equipment. It is planned that certain of the factory’s personnel will transfer to Valmet’s employment later this year. The intention is to use the new factory to deliver maintenance services, primarily to Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America.

Penford Corp., producer of specialty starches, has announced intentions to acquire Starch Australasia Ltd. from Goodman Fielder Ltd. Starch Australasia is a producer of maize starch products, as well as researcher and developer of starch-based products. The acquisition is designed to provide Penford with new opportunities to develop, manufacture, and market specialty carbohydrate-based ingredient systems.

Cattron Group Inc. has acquired Theimeg GmbH, combining Cattron’s strength in industrial remote control equipment with Theimeg’s strong position in Europe and locomotive remote controls. Under the new arrangement, Theimeg’s name will change to Cattron-Theimeg. Cattron has operations in the U.S., Canada, U.K., South Africa, and Brazil.

CP Manufacturing Inc. has acquired Countec Inc. Located in Des Moines, Iowa, Countec, formerly a division of Portec Inds., is a supplier of turn-key material recovery facilities. CP Manufacturing, located in National City, Calif., is a provider of equipment to the recycling industry.

Christian Dalloz, a St. Claude, France-based manufacturer of safety equipment, has purchased Fendall Co., headquartered in Arlington Heights, Ill. The Fendall Co. is a worldwide provider of portable emergency eyewash stations.

Moog, a provider of precision control components and systems, has purchased the Schenck Pegasus servovalve business unit, which makes servocontrols and industrial servovalves. Moog will move this business in its entirety to East Aurora, N.Y., and integrate it into Moog's Industrial Group.

Chemfab Corp. has been acquired by Norton Co., a subsidiary of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain. Chemfab is a manufacturer and marketer of engineered products made primarily from specially formulated flexible polymer materials. Norton Co. is a manufacturer of abrasives, and produced ceramics, plastics, and chemical process products.

 

JOINT VENTURES

PaperExchange.com Inc., a global e-business marketplace for the pulp and paper industry, and OZePrint.com, a web-based community and B2B trading hub for the Australasian printing industry, have announced a strategic agreement that enables OZePrint to extend its service offerings to customers. Under the terms of the agreement, print industry professionals who buy printing services through OZePrint.com will be able to access the PaperExchange.com web site. OZePrint.com and PaperExchange will enable automatic connection, search, and e-commerce functions between both web sites.

Fibermarket, e-commerce provider for the forest products industry, is teaming with Sierra Atlantic, e-business integrator, to provide e-services designed to facilitate integration between forest products companies’ processes and systems and the Fibermarket exchange.

Rockwell Automation has entered a partnership arrangement with Syclo. The two companies will integrate Syclo's SMART technology with the Rockwell Software RSPocketLogix handheld maintenance and troubleshooting tool to transfer real-time work-order information between the plant floor and any computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS). Rockwell also plans to leverage Syclo's Agentry technology in forthcoming mobile computing products.

Michelman Inc., provider of water-based performance coating and additives for corrugated and paper, has partnered with PyroTech, manufacturer of flame retardent coatings, additives, and saturants. The partnership has produced “PyroTech by Michelman,” a line of flame retardent waterbased saturants, additives, and specialty coatings.

G-Log and Consolidated Commerce have entered a partnership agreement wherein Consolidated Commerce's eMarketplace Suite, a transaction management and supply chain optimization software package, will be integrated with G-Log's GC3 (Global Command and Control Center) solution. This will permit Consolidated Commerce-enabled digital marketplaces to continuously and dynamically plan and manage global,multi-modal, multi-carrier shipments while freight is in transit.

SmartSignal, a provider of equipment condition monitoring (ECM) technology, has formed alliances with Crossbow Technology and Think & Do software. Crossbow is a supplier of embedded measurement sensor and control. SmartSignal will provide ECM technology to Think & Do, a manufacturer of PC-based control software.

The SAPMarkets unit of SAP AG has formed a joint venture with engineering group MG Technologies and Babcock-Borsig to operate an online marketplace for plant and machinery engineering companies. The exchange will be called Electronic Commerce for Engineered Components, or Ec4ec, and it will use mySAP.com.

Cutler-Hammer has formed a joint venture with Vaasa Control called Vacon Americas. The joint venture will manufacture low-voltage, variable-frequency drives in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The venture will further align the companies’ interests and establish local manufacturing for the North American market.

Nematron and Stochos have entered a partnership arrangement in which they will provide integrated PC-based control, statistical process control (SPC), and manufacturing execution systems (MES) solutions to manufacturing and process industries. Nematron designs and manufactures a PC-based control solution, and Stochos is a supplier of software systems that focus on improving the manufacturing process.

Fibermarket, an e-commerce solutions provider for the forest products industry, has announced that it will partner with webMethods Inc., a provider of B2B integration solutions, to integrate its marketplace with back-office systems of buyers, suppliers, and brokers in the forest products industry.

 

NEW FACILITIES

fob, provider of e-Procurement services for raw materials, has relocated its corporate offices to a new Chicago location. The b2b company has transitioned from two temporary offices totaling approximately 8,000 ft² to more than 22,000 ft² in its new Apparel Center location.

After nearly 80 years in downtown Cincinnati, Dubois Chemicals is relocating to the Crowne Point Business Park in Sharonville, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. DuBois will now be in close proximity to the company’s R&D laboratory and main manufacturing plant. Dubois will be the sole tenant of a new, 25,600 ft² building.

F&W Forestry Services Inc., a South-wide forestry consulting and rural real estate appraisal company, has established a new office in Jackson, Miss. The new office will provide a full-range of forestry consulting and appraisal services to landowners throughout Mississippi and adjoining areas of south and eastern Louisiana and western Alabama.

Construction of Valmet’s new Technology Center in Wuxi, China, about 100 km west of Shanghai, is progressing according to schedule. The office and workshop premises will be ready for use in early 2001. The center's mission is to support Chinese pulp and papermakers by providing them high value services for the whole lifecycle of their machinery.

 

EXPANSIONS/MODERNIZATION

Krohne Inc. is pulling together all of its North American support functions into its newly established Customer Care Center in its Peabody, Mass., corporate headquarters. Krohne has spent the past several months increasing all aspects of technical and commercial customer support, including adding personnel in the areas of customer service, application and product support, and filed service.

Grayling Industries, a manufacturer of products for hazardous waste abatement, has announced $2 million in major equipment, process, and facility improvements to its new 60,000 ft2 manufacturing plant in Juarez, Mexico. The improvements are designed to increase productivity and quality control.

 

MARKETING/LICENSING

Armstrong Industrial Hand Tools, manufacturer of hand tools, has announced that its been selected as one of ten strategic suppliers for W.W. Grainger Inc., provider of maintenance, repair, and operating supplies in North America. According to the agreement, Armstrong’s complete line of hand tools will be available through Grainger’s national sales force, an online storefront at www.grainger.com, and more than 370 nationwide store locations.

Siemens AG has reached a worldwide distribution agreement to license, implement, and support Ivara's enterprise asset management (EAM) systems and computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) software and services. Siemens will also integrate the Ivara products as a plant maintenance management system (PMMS) into the Siemens Industrial Framework, a vendor-independent strategy for flexible and configurable integration of manufacturing and business data.

 

REORGANIZATION

Buckman Laboratories has increased the size of its Customer Service Dept., with another staff increase expected in the near future. Buckman states that the purpose of the new department is: to satisfy customer requirements, process orders quickly and accurately, communicate effectively with customers and sales representatives, define and implement any customer’s special instructions, and to communicate effectively with other Buckman associates.

KWI Inc. (formerly Krofta Waters Inc.), provider of water and wastewater treatment, has completed its worldwide corporate restructuring program announced earlier this year. All subsidiary companies have now changed their names to include KWI and the new logo. All original product lines will still be marketed, but will be renamed and, in some cases, redesigned.

RJM Corp., a supplier of products and services that help solve combustion, emissions, and energy-related problems, has announced the formation of a new division, the Advanced Technologies Group, located in Norwalk, Conn. The newly formed group will be responsible for introducing new energy products and engineering solutions.

Honeywell has retained Salomon Smith Barney to assist it in finding a buyer for its Consumer Products Group (CPG) business unit, a manufacturer and marketer of consumer products for the automotive industry.

Kemira Oy's management board has decided to simplify the group business structure. The titanium dioxide pigments business of Kemira Pigments Oy will be part of the Industrial Chemicals unit in Kemira Chemicals Oy. Kemira Pigments will continue as a separate company. In Kemira Chemicals, the Formics business unit will be moved from the Pulp & Paper Chemicals strategic business unit to the Industrial Chemicals SBU. These changes in business structure are effective beginning January 1, 2001.

 

PRICING

Effective Oct. 1, 2000, the Dow Emulsion Polymers business is increasing the prices of styrene/butadiene latexes, styrene acrylic latexes, and solid plastic pigment by three cents/lb (dry) in the U.S. and Canada. Dow cites increased cost for major raw materials as the force driving the price increase. Dow is also increasing the off-list selling price for all grades of caustic soda sold in the U.S. by $60/dry short ton, basis 76% Na2O. The increase is effective immediately to all spot customers, or as contract terms permit.

Air Products Polymers L.P., an affiliate of Air Products and Chemicals Inc., has increased price of its emulsion products sold in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The company’s vinyl acetate-ethylene, ethylene-vinyl chloride, vinyl-acrylic, and polyvinyl acetate homopolymer and copolymer products have increased two and a half cents/wet lb. Acrylic products have increased three cents/wet lb. Air Products Polymers L.P. states that these increases are intended to recover past increases in raw material costs that have not been fully recovered over the past year.

 

TECHNOLOGY

The U.S. Patent Office has issued a patent for form-fitted industrial electric motor covers manufactured by Worthington Products LLC. The MotorCover (U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,990) protects electric motors from conditions that cause motors to overheat and fail.

 

NEW COMPANIES

vertacross.com, the first cross-vendor virtual b2b marketplace for automation in Europe and the U.S. has been operating since Aug. 1, 2000. The site is available for anyone interested in automation products, systems, and solutions can search for information, products, or establish contacts.

 

CERTIFICATIONS/AWARDS

A key component of the Fisher Fieldvue digital valve controller has been awarded Grand Prize in the Powder Metallurgy Design Competition sponsored yearly by the Metal Powder Industries Federation. The competition, which is open to powdered metal manufacturers around the world, recognizes outstanding applications of powder metallurgy technology. The award-winning Fieldvue part, a housing for current-to-pneumatic conversion components, is produced by Advanced Materials Technologies Pte. Ltd. of Singapore, a partner of Fisher.

Trace Laboratories East, an independent testing organization that provides safety inspection, consulting, and other services, has received certification in failure analysis in accordance with the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation