Ceramic and glass business news of the week for December 7, 2020

PLANTS, CENTERS, AND FACILITIES

RareX set to launch maiden drilling program at Weld North rare earths project

A high-impact maiden drilling program is set to commence this week at RareX’s Weld North rare earths project in Western Australia. The project covers a large and circular magnetic anomaly that RareX believes may represent a carbonatite intrusive complex similar to those hosting the majority of the world’s existing rare earth elements deposits.

Xinyi Canada Glass holds second public information session for planned Stratford glass plant

Xinyi Canada Glass, the company proposing to build a $400-million glass plant in southwest Stratford, Ontario, Canada, hosted another public information session last Thursday to answer more questions about the controversial project. Xinyi’s first public information session took place November 14.

Arglass Yamamura starts Georgia, US furnace heat up process

Arglass Yamamura announced the start of its furnace heat-up process at its site in Georgia, U.S. All new bottles produced by Arglass will be made with its proprietary glass composition Arglass Biogenic, which enhances sustainability attributes over traditional glass bottles.

ACQUISITIONS AND COLLABORATIONS

Alcoa announces agreement to sell rolling mill business to Kaiser Aluminum

Alcoa Corporation announced an agreement to sell its rolling mill business, held by Alcoa Warrick LLC, to Kaiser Aluminum Corporation for a total consideration of about $670 million. The sale is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2021. As part of the transaction, Alcoa will enter into a market-based metal supply agreement with Kaiser Aluminum.

Bormioli Pharma acquires German company ISO GmbH

Italian glassmaker Bormioli Pharma acquired German glass pharmaceutical packaging company ISO Arzneiverpackungen. The acquisition—through Bromioli’s German subsidiary Remy & Geiser—broadens Bormioli’s range of packaging for parenteral drugs.

Mkango announces grant-funded project to develop rare-earth recycling for loudspeakers

Mkango Resources Ltd. announced that HyProMag Limited and partners European Metal Recycling Limited and University of Birmingham were awarded a grant from the U.K. Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund for a new project that will investigate ways of recycling rare-earth magnets from speakers used in automotive and consumer electronics applications.

City of Boulder working with Fermata Energy to test V2B technology

The City of Boulder, Colorado is partnering with Fermata Energy to test the ability to reduce the city’s building energy costs with an innovative pilot charging station at the North Boulder Recreation Center that enables two-way electricity: from the building to the car and from the car back to the building.

C-Capture, Pilkington assess feasibility of carbon capture in the glass industry

C-Capture announced that it will work alongside glass manufacturer Pilkington to assess the possibility of using its technology to capture CO₂ emissions from glass production. The partnership was awarded funding through Innovate UK’s Sustainable Innovation Fund.

FGK -Glas/Keramik- GmbH acquires CeraFab Multi 2M30 from Lithoz

FGK -Glas/Keramik- GmbH, based in Germany, is a research institute that focuses on the research and development of ceramics. They recently acquired the CeraFab Multi 2M30 3D printer from Lithoz GmbH.

OTHER STORIES

TechCrunch Sessions: Space 2020

Online newspaper TechCrunch is hosting a two-day online event December 16–17 focused on the space industry. The event will feature fireside chats, panel discussions, and breakout sessions with people across public, private, primes, and defense.

Ceramics Expo 2021: Call for speakers

Organizers of Ceramics Expo put out a call for speakers for next year’s conference that will run May 3–5, 2021. Abstracts are invited on topics including industry events, applications, material properties, and manufacturing.

drupa 2021 to be cancelled and goes online as ‘virtual.drupa’

The 2021 edition of drupa, the world’s leading trade fair for printing technologies, will be cancelled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The organizers will offer “virtual.drupa,” a four-day digital event, from April 20–23, 2021, during the time frame in which drupa was originally scheduled.

Free Form Fibers announces completion of successful fundraising round

Free Form Fibers concluded a $2.5 million financing round to build additional production capacity for pure fiber and powder materials produced using its advanced, patented Rapid Laser-assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition (R-LCVD) process.

Saitec receives grant of €2.4m for its floating offshore wind energy technology

Saitec Engineering obtained a grant of €2.4 million from the European Commission’s Blue Economy Window initiative to finance the SATHScale project, which will address the challenge of bringing SATH floating offshore wind technology to market through the development of the prototype that begins with the validation and demonstration of its technology.

Wall Street Journal names Kyocera among world’s 100 most sustainably managed companies

The Wall Street Journal named Kyocera to its 2020 list of the “100 Most Sustainably Managed Companies in the World.” To create this ranking, analysts assessed the sustainability metrics of more than 5,500 publicly traded businesses.

New strategy: Schott sets the course for the future

Glass manufacturer Schott set itself ambitious goals with its new group strategy. The goals concentrate on four fields of action: new business fields, China and the U.S., climate neutral by 2030, and driving forward transformation in terms of digitalization and diversity.

New initiative launched as part of Vitrum 2021

As part of Vitrum 2021, the organization launched the initiative “Glass Is…The Qualities of Glass” to highlight qualities and benefits gained with everyday use of glass in objects formed through know-how and technologies that help the entire supply chain. Exhibitors are asked to indicate the qualities that, directly or indirectly, trace back to their production.

Glass manufacturing emission reduction project website goes live

A website focused on a project to reduce CO₂ emissions from the glass manufacturing process has gone live. The Life Sugar project aims to investigate the use of hydrogen-based combustion in the glass sector which could pave the way to a carbon-free industry. Check out the website here.

MARKET TRENDS

Germany scraps renewable fee on green hydrogen to encourage new technology

Germany’s government lifted a charge levied on power prices to support renewable energy for producers of so-called green hydrogen, part of a bid to encourage the nascent technology for low-carbon fuels.

NEW PRODUCTS

Vehicle-to-grid innovation allows a car to be energy source

Green Mountain Power successfully deployed a first-of-its kind vehicle-to-grid charger to reduce energy use on the grid during peak demand. The company plans to launch a pilot program for customers in the coming year and offer this option to businesses who are electrifying their fleets of cars and buses.