Polymer & Commodities
The UK Rubber & Polymer industries employ upwards of 300,000 people, with the polymers and plastics industry dominating with more than 90% of this employment.
There are approximately 7,500 companies involved in the UK rubber and polymer market, but despite this significant figure, we have witnessed a trend of production moving abroad to lower cost producers in Asia, the US and Eastern Europe. For the UK’s rubber manufacturers in particular, the outlook is uncertain, due to their complete dependency upon the commodity markets, which are dominated by large producers in the Far East.
However all hope is not lost for the UK industry, as technology is developing and bringing opportunities in the newer biodegradable, recycled and recyclable polymers. There are in the region of two hundred companies within these sectors in the North East of England.
Polymers were first manufactured on the Wilton Site on Teesside and to this day we can still find many polymers and their intermediates being made there. Purified terephthalic acid, or PTA as it’s commonly known, the precursor of PET (polyethylene terephalate), is manufactured on the very large scale on the site by the Korean owned Lotte Chemicals.
Next door, one of the newer innovations in global recycling is taking place, where the patented technology of Greenstar WES (recently been acquired by Biffa) enables the company to provide 17 per cent of the polymer used in UK milk bottles as recycled material - watch how this company expands over the coming years.
Furthermore, the Wilton site is dominated by SABIC’s huge £300 million investment into Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE), the largest such plant in the world that has turned the UK into a net exporter of that material.
In the speciality polymer area the very hard and useful engineering polymer, PEEK, is manufactured by Victrex, but many do not realise that the entire precursor to that polymer is also made on Teesside by Victrex at Seal Sands. Elsewhere on Teesside, Ineos Nitriles make the raw materials for Nylon and manufactures PVC polymer.
Lucite International, now part of the Mitsubishi Group, are the biggest producers in the world of MMA (methyl-methacrylate), the precursor of Perspex Acrylics, which again was first manufactured here in North East England. MMA is the driving force behind the global Perspex brand. Meanwhile, Dupont Tejin Films, who make specialist materials such as cling film and electronic tapes, still have a major R&D activity here.
It is not surprising therefore that many of the above high-tech manufacturing facilities and the R&D teams that underpin them, are working from the Wilton Centre in Redcar. Here they are generating new materials and processes for the plastic electronic sector, which are finding applications as flexible television and monitor screens, printed circuits, photovoltaic cells and leading edge lighting equipment.
Many of these companies are collaborating in these new technology areas with the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), who can support developments in new polymers through the National Industrial Biotechnology and Sustainable Process units, which house scale up equipment to enable company’s trial their new products and processes. CPI also manages the National Plastic Electronic Centre in Sedgefield, where many new product innovations are taking place.
Downstream users of these materials and technology include Fischer- Scientific, who manufacture special hygienic vessels and materials for the biotech industry, while the Nissan supply chain includes polymer extruders such as Calsonic Kansei, Nifco and Hashimoto. IPS Flow Systems and Wavin manufacture plastic piping & ducting, while Smithers-Oasis manufacture water absorbing plastics for the horticultural market at Washington. Elsewhere, Newcastle based Cope Allman Jaycare make packaging materials for the pharmaceutical and healthcare markets and SCA Foam Products & packaging. These are just a few examples of the diversity in this hugely important sector of the North East economy.
