You can read the complete July/August issue of British Plastics & Rubber on the internet.

Finnish packaging group Huhtamaki is separating its rigid plastics consumer goods operations into a separate division with the likelihood of selling it.

Perspex producer Lucite International is considering a sale or public flotation and investment banks Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch are to assess the options.

Testing, research and consultancy company Smithers Rapra Technology has been re-organised into two operating companies by making its information business a new entity, called iSmithers.

A new role of deputy chief executive has been created at Borealis, and Herbert Willerth has been appointed to fill it.

A recycled grade of PC/ABS has been developed by Bayer MaterialScience and will be sold through the Internet site www.viverso.com.

The full extent of declining business in Britain and Ireland for Dutch pipe maker Wavin shows in its results for the first half of this year.

Further job cuts are possible at Filtrona this year.

Borealis and Mitsubishi Chemical are to join forces in supplying polypropylene compounds to the automotive industry in Europe and the USA.

The plastics additives joint venture in the Middle East, announced a couple of weeks ago by Ciba, will be with Astra Polymers of Saudi Arabia.

The former SMS Group extrusion machinery subsidiaries Battenfeld Extrusion Group and Cincinnati Extrusion have been reorganised by private equity group Triton, which bought them early last year.

Four Huntsman shareholders - all US hedge funds - are calling Apollo Management's bluff over its stalled takeover of Huntsman Chemical.

A four-part plastics exhibition is being scheduled by easyFairs for November next year at the NEC in Birmingham.

A rebuttal of Invista's law suit claiming that Rhodia and DuPont are stealing Invista trade secrets to develop and operate an adiponitrile plant in Asia has been issued by Rhodia.

Another record-breaking year for the recycling of PVC is being forecast by Recovinyl, the PVC industry's recycling scheme.

Improved sorting technology will increase the re-use of polypropylene, polystyrene and ABS at Mitsubishi Electric in Japan.

A high pressure autoclave process for making LDPE and EVA has been added to the technologies offered for license by LyondellBasell.

Birmingham-based vacuum former Styleguard is being bought by Enzone Plastics of Bilston, also in the West Midlands.

Backward integration in polyester production has been bought by DSM Engineering Plastics through the acquisition of the polymerisation assets of Diolen Industrial Fibers in the Netherlands.

Growth in demand for PET preform moulds and injection moulding systems in Latin America has spurred Husky to increase its local presence in the region.

Ciba is planning to expand its plastics additives operations in the Middle East in the next few weeks with a joint venture.

Invista has named DuPont as a conspirator alongside Rhodia in a plot to steal trade secrets, and has filed a suit in the New York federal court.

BASF is to package its styrenics business into separate subsidiaries for sale, and is to make them more attractive by putting in more of its styrene copolymer operations.

America's Food and Drug Administration has given tentative support to bisphenol A - a component of polycarbonate and epoxy - which has sparked consumer scares in the USA and Canada and invoked an imminent ban in Canada.

Technology to make bio-sourced plasticisers is being licensed by PolyOne Corporation from research company Battelle.

Changes have been made to the sales and marketing structure of DuPont Engineering Polymers.

A consumer electronics moulding plant is to be set up in Slovakia by Mitsubishi Plastics of Japan.

A distribution agreement under which Resinex took on sales of Ticona materials in Central and Eastern Europe, has been extended to some Western European countries including Britain.

Research testing and consultancy company Smithers Rapra has another new managing director, this time promoted from within.

A 525,000 tonnes polypropylene plant is scheduled for start-up in 2012 by Arabian industrial fibres company Ibn Rushd at Yanbu, in Saudi Arabia.

A project to research the sustainability of mixed plastics recycling is to be started in Britain in September.

More investment capital is being put into two major recycling companies to fund growth.

Sales of the Chinese-built but formerly German Zerma granulators are being extended in Britain through a co-operation with Summit Systems.

Gerresheimer of Germany has put its technical moulding business up for sale to concentrate on pharmaceutical and life science moulding.

Rexam is to shut an injection moulded closures plant in the USA.

Italian materials handling equipment producer Moretto, which earlier this year set up Moretto UK, has now opened up a German subsidiary.