Domotex Asia/ China Floor 2015

The 17th edition of Domotex Asia/ China Floor was held March 24-26 at the Shanghai New International Exhibition Center. With more than 1,275 companies in attendance representing all flooring industries from decking to carpets and turf, this is the largest floor materials show in Asia. The Americhem team joined the more than 30,000 visitors from over 100 countries to learn about the newest trends and technological advances of the flooring industry. Our commercial team enjoyed networking and seeing what the big names in flooring had to display.

Belgian carpet company Beaulieu International Group will invest 13.5M dollars on two plants in Weihai City. They have already began the process of moving their equipment from Belgium to these new China plants. This is just one of many examples that show manufacturing being moved here to China where raw materials and many customers are located.

Shanhua Carpet, which is also located in Weihai City introduced their new line of Tylon products which is an innovative biological based fiber for carpets. These products are made of a new generation of their already eco-friendly fiber Sorona, which is a flexible, renewable fiber used in the carpet industry.

Shanhua also introduced its GY1323 series of carpets that are marine themed. These carpets are made with textures of polygonal cells with shimmering sea and oval patterns like shells on the beach. Paired with a pleasant ocean wall decor, it conveys features of environmental protection and comfort. You can see the trends changing in the industry away from the muted stock colors to more vibrant colors and patterns. There is much less beige living room carpet or self-promoting corporate designs.

The hottest products this year had to be the PE Wood Plastic Composite (WPC) co-extruded products. Sentai, Helong and New Techwood are major players in this market and are bringing the innovation to the forefront of industries such as decking. Right now, their business is going out to Europe, USA and Canada.

There was an educational seminar this year about WPC to introduce its innovation and usefulness to the flooring market. We also learned that Trex plans to enter the China market and will soon introduce their own line of PE WPC co-extruded products.

Domotex Asia/China Floor is always a great event and we are grateful that we were able to attend to see not only our customers, but to see how the industry as a whole is growing.

Contributors:
Frank Li, Commercial Manager, Americhem SUZ
Bruce Zhang, Technical Sales Manager, Americhem Suzhou
Rose Tu, Commercial Manager, Americhem SUZ

Material Suppliers Part of a Growing Trend at Fakuma 2014

Here at the Fakuma trade fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany, material suppliers like Americhem are part of a growing trend. The fair has developed from its roots as a plastics machinery exhibition when it began in 1981. According to P.E. Schall, the fair’s organizer, what started as a show based primarily on injection molding equipment has evolved to include suppliers of resins, compounds, molded parts and extrusion and thermoforming equipment among its 1,772 exhibitors. This is Americhem’s first time exhibiting at the show, and we’ve been pleased with what we’ve experienced.

The traffic has been brisk, particularly during the midday hours. Americhem has welcomed existing customers as well as new contacts throughout the first four days of the show, which closes tomorrow. What has surprised us is the amount of synthetic fiber producers and converters that have visited during the fair, whose primary audience come from the plastics industry. They have been receptive to the line of color and additive masterbatches that we have promoted, many of which have been newly introduced over the past year.

We’ve also welcomed writers and editors from various industry publications. Plastics News produced three English language show daily newspapers for the first time and Americhem’s products and services were featured in a full-page article distributed Wednesday. Senior reporter Frank Esposito has visited our stand on a couple of occasions and shared his observations with us. Esposito has interviewed numerous material producers scattered throughout the show’s twelve large halls, and categorizes the show as a big, busy fair with injection molding as the dominant process. However, he observed that there are not the overwhelming amount of visitors that characterize the K show, held once every three years in Germany, making the show a more pleasant experience for those who attended.

What initially has been considered a regional show primarily aimed at the three-country ‘DACH’ triangle of Germany (D), Austria (A), and Switzerland (CH), Fakuma has grown to include many visitors and exhibitors from throughout Europe, including the central and eastern regions, as well as a significant amount of companies based in North America. Asian visitors have not seemed as prevalent, but we have welcomed several throughout the first four days. The town of Friedrichshafen, with its picturesque location on the shores of Lake Constance on the Swiss-German border, is a big draw for visitors throughout the world. The region is characterized by beautiful rolling hills and the charming German countryside, including plentiful apple orchards, vineyards and livestock farming. This is in stark contrast with K show’s urban setting in Düsseldorf.

For our part, Americhem Europe Ltd. has been proud to make our debut at this year’s show, and we’ve considered the audience ideal for our plastics and fibers businesses. We offer a hearty thanks to all the visitors we’ve hosted and we look forward to participation in next year’s fair.

Scott Blanchard

Senior Corporate Marketing Specialist

Positive Vibe at the 2014 Synthetic Turf Council Member Meeting

I had the pleasure of attending this week’s Synthetic Turf Council Annual Member’s meeting in San Antonio. The mood of the meeting was definitely upbeat. With 272 delegates in attendance, this was the largest STC member meeting yet. There has been a tremendous influx of new members lately, and that was evident in the attendees and at the new member’s reception. The STC regularly tweets news of new members joining the council, and it’s interesting to follow them on Twitter at @SynTurfCouncil.

This year’s keynote speech was from economist Brian Beaulieu of ITR Economics. Beaulieu was upbeat about the future for those in the turf industry and the economy in general, as he predicted four years of solid economic growth through 2018. He did sound a note of caution about the skilled workforce, however, mentioning that finding enough skilled labor now and in the future could be a big problem. He also highlighted Mexico as a fertile ground for growth for companies involved in the industry.

Professor John Sorochan and Research Leader Adam Thoms of the University of Tennessee led an interesting discussion on turf safety. UT has more than five acres of turf for conducting studies with the aim of enhancing safety for athletes and others that play on synthetic turf. Much of their time is devoted to studying hardness and traction and the interaction between the two. One of the biggest issues continues to be heat buildup on turf fields and Americhem’s research scientists are continually working to combat this issue as it relates to pigments and additives in turf yarn.

David Dyas of BASF talked about polymer stabilization and explained how UV stabilizers are subject to interaction with other elements of turf fields. For example, crumb rubber and the thickness of the turf film can all help determine how long a field’s color will last before fading. Some companies are even experimenting with longer tufts on synthetic fields with the intention of eventually cutting them to reveal the “protected” layer of tufts below, which have retained their color.

All in all, this was a great meeting to participate in. Our customers in the industry are upbeat and business is good for them right now. One of our key customers is so busy that they are using contract manufacturing, in addition to their own lines, to meet demand for their products. San Antonio was a great venue for this meeting, as most of the participants stayed at the host hotel (the Hilton Palacio Del Rio) and the Riverwalk establishments close to it for dinner meetings and other interaction. We’re hoping that the good times continue for the industry and that, through hard work and partnering with one another, the next STC member meeting will be even bigger and more successful.

Marty Staten

Account Manager, Americhem, Inc.