European plastics market strategically important for the Group

May, 29, 2018 - RadiciGroup exhibited at Plast 2018, the trade fair for plastics and rubber held every three years in Milan. During the first half of this year, the RadiciGroup Performance Plastics Business Area has already taken part in several important trade shows around the world: ChinaPlas in China, PlastIndia in India, and NPE in Florida, USA. In Italy, the plastics compounder has a stopover in the home country of its headquarters.

Plast 2018 was RadiciGroup’s opportunity to acquaint the Italian market, and the European market in general, with its enhanced product range, backed by over 35 years’ experience in plastics — an industry that is now going through a delicate phase.

“The engineering plastics market, and the polyamide market in particular, are going through a very turbulent stage due to structural shortcomings in the supply chain,” pointed out Cesare Clausi, global sales director of RadiciGroup Performance Plastics. “Demand is steadily increasing, even in mature markets like Europe. And, in the last two years, Italy has started to grow again, maintaining its key position in Europe, second only to Germany. In this context, not only are we honouring all our commitments without causing inconvenience to our partners, but we are also embarking on a further expansion in production capacity, set to be completed by this summer and primarily involving our plants in Italy.”

In the last few years, the Performance Plastics Business Area has maintained its performance in emerging markets and, on top of that, has continued to strengthen its presence in the European market, which is strategically important for the Group.

“Our vertically integrated polyamide production with 8 compounding plants on 3 continents,” Mr. Clausi added, “puts us in a position ready to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the ongoing consolidation of global players to whoever is able to provide advanced worldwide service. And I do not mean proposing only an expanded product range, greater product customization and prompt service, but also specialized consulting in the design stage.”

On this last topic, Erico Spini, marketing & application development director of RadiciGroup Performance Plastics, had this to say: “We are a “solution provider, in the sense that we are committed to becoming a partner to our customers in their innovative projects, suggesting the most suitable materials, developing new products, if needed, and providing support in the simulation of mould filling and structural analysis.”

At the RadiciGroup Plast 2018 stand and also at the press conference held at RadiciGroup´s booth, visitors could view the full product portfolio, including the offering of innovative materials for engineering applications developed during the last ten years by RadiciGroup Performance Plastics Research & Development: from PA 6.6 Radilon® HHR to PA 6 and PA 6.6 Radistrong®, as well as the more recent entries, PPA Radilon® Aestus T and PPS Raditeck® P.

Mr. Spini concluded: “We pay special attention to new applications in emerging and innovative fields. Here I’m talking about ‘e-mobility’, a sector where we provide materials for battery covers, charging plugs and connectors (engineering plastics from the Radiflam® family), along with products for the battery cooling system (Radilon® RG, D, DT, Aestus and Raditeck®) and high voltage connectors (Radiflam®). We also provide materials for the water and plumbing sector, for which we’ve developed a wide range of metal replacement products, such as the engineering plastics Radilon A (PA6.6), Radilon DT (PA6.12) and Radilon Aestus (PPA). Some of these materials have already been certified for use in contact with water, in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations in the various countries.”

With approximately 3,000 employees, sales revenue of EUR 946 million in 2016 and a network of production and sales sites located throughout Europe, North America, South America and Asia, RadiciGroup is one of the world’s leading producers of a range of chemical intermediates, polyamide polymers, engineering plastics, synthetic fibres and nonwovens. These products – the result of the Group’s chemical expertise and vertically integrated polyamide production chain – have been developed for use in a variety of industrial sectors, such as Automotive, Electrical and Electronics, Consumer Goods, Apparel, Furninshings, Construction, Household Appliances, Sports. With its business areas - Specialty Chemicals, Performance Plastics and Synthetic Fibres & Nonwovens (Performance Yarn, Comfort Fibres and Extrusion Yarn), RadiciGroup is part of a larger industrial group that also includes textile machinery (ITEMA), energy (GEOGREEN) and hotel (SAN MARCO) businesses.

Source: RadiciGroup