Comment
1992-02-01 00:00:00
February 1992 PIGMENT AND RESIN TECHNOLOGY 3 ICI and Ferro powder deal is off It looks as though the joint venture proposed between ICI and Ferro Corporation to manufacture and market powder coatings world wide is now off. News of the proposals was first given on this page in our September 1991 issue. Checking Ceefax late last month (mainly to see how our ill considered purchase of BT shares was getting on) we saw the news that the plans for the joint venture had broken down and according to Ferro Corporation in the U.S. talks have broken down. Ferro said it would remain a global supplier of powder but gave no reason why talks had collapsed. A fax from Holden Surface Coatings in Birmingham, received later, told us that ICI intends to remain a major global supplier of powder coatings. They stated that the outcome was "very disappointing". It would appear that the deal foundered on a combination of "issues of principle, financial contribution and most importantly timescale to completion". Purely conjecture on our part, but we wonder whether another sticking point, or in this case an unsticking point, would be the overcapacity situation in the UK if Ferro continued powder production at the large, modern plant at Aldridge and ICI continued its powder manufacturing operations at the former Arthur Holden site, or even made room for it at the Stowmarket, Suffolk, site, where considerable expansion is takening place? Readers wil l recall that the original proposals for the joint venture were to create the world's largest powder coating organisation wit h annual sales of £120m. ICI was to take a 51 per cent stake in the US based opration. The week before this news broke, Mike Davies, marketing director at Ferro's Aldridge Powder Coatings Division, told us that whilst the UK market was down (surprise! surprise!) they were actively pursuing overseas markets, wit h some good business being obtained in Israel in particular, for architectural, domestic appliance and general industrial fields. New pollution laws will hit hundreds of firms, warns March Consulting Group Thousands of British companies are ignoring new anti-pollution laws — and as many as ten per cent may go out of business as a result. The stringent Schedule Β rules of the Environmental Protection Act govern air pollution and are being applied by 300 local authorities across Britain. First requirement is for factories to register with the local council just to be able to continue their business. Independent expert Jim Watt, of Manchester-based March Consulting Group, warned: "Whether out of ignorance or inability to react, thousands of companies are running the risk of being prosecuted because they are ignoring letters which have been sent out by local authorities. 'They either feel unable to register or don't understand what is required — but the problem is not going to go away. Some local authorities are already preparing to take firms to court because there has been such a poor response. The feeling is that they will have to make examples to bring the rest into line. "Once they have registered, the implementation of the legislation is a minefield and small and medium-sized companies are particularly vulnerable — they have the shortest time to get themselves into shape." In some areas, such as use of solvents for coatings, car spraying and other applications, no definition has been issued on what are known as Volatile Organic Compounds — or on the precise methods of testing.
http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.pngPigment & Resin TechnologyEmerald Publishinghttp://www.deepdyve.com/lp/emerald-publishing/comment-YSrzAcfMfW
February 1992 PIGMENT AND RESIN TECHNOLOGY 3 ICI and Ferro powder deal is off It looks as though the joint venture proposed between ICI and Ferro Corporation to manufacture and market powder coatings world wide is now off. News of the proposals was first given on this page in our September 1991 issue. Checking Ceefax late last month (mainly to see how our ill considered purchase of BT shares was getting on) we saw the news that the plans for the joint venture had broken down and according to Ferro Corporation in the U.S. talks have broken down. Ferro said it would remain a global supplier of powder but gave no reason why talks had collapsed. A fax from Holden Surface Coatings in Birmingham, received later, told us that ICI intends to remain a major global supplier of powder coatings. They stated that the outcome was "very disappointing". It would appear that the deal foundered on a combination of "issues of principle, financial contribution and most importantly timescale to completion". Purely conjecture on our part, but we wonder whether another sticking point, or in this case an unsticking point, would be the overcapacity situation in the UK if Ferro continued powder production at the large, modern plant at Aldridge and ICI continued its powder manufacturing operations at the former Arthur Holden site, or even made room for it at the Stowmarket, Suffolk, site, where considerable expansion is takening place? Readers wil l recall that the original proposals for the joint venture were to create the world's largest powder coating organisation wit h annual sales of £120m. ICI was to take a 51 per cent stake in the US based opration. The week before this news broke, Mike Davies, marketing director at Ferro's Aldridge Powder Coatings Division, told us that whilst the UK market was down (surprise! surprise!) they were actively pursuing overseas markets, wit h some good business being obtained in Israel in particular, for architectural, domestic appliance and general industrial fields. New pollution laws will hit hundreds of firms, warns March Consulting Group Thousands of British companies are ignoring new anti-pollution laws — and as many as ten per cent may go out of business as a result. The stringent Schedule Β rules of the Environmental Protection Act govern air pollution and are being applied by 300 local authorities across Britain. First requirement is for factories to register with the local council just to be able to continue their business. Independent expert Jim Watt, of Manchester-based March Consulting Group, warned: "Whether out of ignorance or inability to react, thousands of companies are running the risk of being prosecuted because they are ignoring letters which have been sent out by local authorities. 'They either feel unable to register or don't understand what is required — but the problem is not going to go away. Some local authorities are already preparing to take firms to court because there has been such a poor response. The feeling is that they will have to make examples to bring the rest into line. "Once they have registered, the implementation of the legislation is a minefield and small and medium-sized companies are particularly vulnerable — they have the shortest time to get themselves into shape." In some areas, such as use of solvents for coatings, car spraying and other applications, no definition has been issued on what are known as Volatile Organic Compounds — or on the precise methods of testing.
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