EXCELLENCE IN RUBBER COMPOUNDING FEBRUARY 2021 SPC appoints new chief financial officer Barcelona, Spain – SPC has named José Cantón as the Group’s new chief financial officer, replacing Conrad Bayliss who has stepped down after successfully steering the group through the Brexit deadline. Taking up the position in January, José is based at SPC’s Barcelona facility, while overseeing financial strategy for the whole Group. José joins SPC from the medical manufacturing company, Smith + Nephew, where he was Finance Director for the South of Europe responsible for the finance departments in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece and the finance teams in Poland and India. Prior to Smith + Nephew, José worked for Ernst & Young as an auditor. Commenting on the appointment, group CEO Paul Hallas said: “We are delighted to welcome José to our team. His experience in managing manufacturing finance teams across multiple markets is a perfect fit.” José said: “I am excited to work in a team which demonstrates such a high level of professionalism. I am looking forward to driving forward our international business.” DECEMBER 2020 SPC Rubber commits further investment in Wales plant SPC Rubber, has increased investment in its successful Wales-based plant with the installation of a new mixing facility, opening an additional line. The new 35 litre mixer is the latest investment to the dedicated colour factory in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales. The ultraclean factory was opened by SPC in 2017 to focus exclusively on colour compounds, complementing the company’s technical rubber output from plants located near Bristol, UK, and Barcelona, Spain. The Wales site has its own technical development laboratory with both analytical and mechanical testing machines. The factory accommodates a range of manufacturing orders, supplying batches from just 5kg to 140kg at a time. The site also has inline filtering of compounds. The new 35 litre mixer is ideal for production of high quality, superior performance, coloured elastomer compounds. The mixer chamber has full access for cleaning and the mixer has complete cycle and temperature control, offering excellent reproducibility. It is therefore well suited to the mixing of low volume compounds for critical markets The expansion represents the latest chapter in a story of growth for the successful manufacturer. Paul Hallas SPC MD commented: “We continue to expand the production capability within the UK, despite the challenging conditions in 2020. Overall the market demand for rubber compounds is strong and the range of applications continuing to rise. Our new mixer is a fantastic addition to the production facility at Maerdy, bridging the gap between our smaller mixing lines and our large one. He added: “Despite a challenging environment for everyone this year, I believe UK manufacturing companies must continue to invest. Following Brexit we will inevitably be faced with new trading conditions next year and UK manufacturers must strive to continue to be market leaders in their industries.” During 2020 SPC developed several new coloured aerospace (AMS) and food industry (FDA) elastomer compounds. The 35 litre mixer will provide intermediate batch volume, giving opportunity for cost-effective production level trials of new grades, as well as the on-going supply of compounds against technically demanding standards. As demand increases, the larger SPC Maerdy K5 140 litre intermeshing rotor offers a perfect option for scaled-up production. It is envisaged these and the 35 litre mixer batch sizes will be of interest to customers in the aerospace, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and oil and gas sectors. SEPTEMBER 2020 UK REACH: SPC leads way with compliance and customer support At the beginning of September the UK Government announced their plans for an independent chemicals’ regulatory framework, the so-called UK REACH. Here, Business Development Technologist at SPC, Jon Cutler, explains what UK REACH is and how SPC is proactive about complying with the legislation and supporting customers to do so. As the Business Development Technologist at SPC, part of my role has been to make sure SPC only uses chemicals that comply with EU REACH legislation. This means that everything we produce – and everything we supply to our customers – is fully compliant. Now that the Government has revealed its vision for UK REACH, we will continue with our proactive approach by ensuring all chemicals purchased in the future comply with both EU REACH and UK REACH. In their announcement of UK REACH, the UK Government listed the process and timescales of conversion from EU to UK REACH regulations. I have outlined these in the table (see right). In the meantime, we are very happy to discuss with customers any concerns related to the forthcoming UK REACH legislation and all of the ways we can support customers during the transition process. Administered by the HSE, UK REACH will go live on the 1st January 2021. From then on, UK chemical manufacturers, importers and distributors will be required to comply with laws relating to registration of chemicals. Deadlines for full submission of registrations are staggered for 2, 4 or 6 years. Starting from 28th October 2021, chemicals manufactured or imported at high tonnage, or with more hazardous properties, must be registered first. EU REACH registrations held by UK companies can be ‘grandfathered’ directly into UK REACH. This means that UK companies holding an EU REACH (chemicals) registration may submit their EU REACH registration dossier data for UK REACH registration without further scrutiny. However, basic information for ‘grandfathered’ registrations is still required and needs to be submitted to the HSE by 30th April 2021, this is the date whereby registrants should provide notice of intent for the later 2, 4 or 6 years data submission. UK companies importing chemicals but not holding the EU REACH registration will need to ensure a UK REACH registration in the future but can continue to import chemicals by completing a Downstream User Import Notification (DUIN) by 27th October 2021. Deadlines for the subsequent submission of dossiers for each chemical is shown in the table. The HSE on-line service ‘Comply with UK REACH’ will go live on 1st January 2021, when more detail is expected on the registration process. Older posts SPC Europe Group Disclaimer T&C of Purchase T&C of Sale Contact Us