Mexico City — A roundup of new product announcements from Plastimagen 2019, held in Mexico City April 2-5.

HRSflow, the hot runner division of Italy-based Inglass SpA, exhibited at Plastimagen in Mexico, where the company employs eight people in a service center in Querétaro.

Alessandra Bosco, director of global business development at Inglass, said the facility handles service, spare parts and training.

“We've been on the Mexican market since 2003,” Bosco said.

Robert Harvey, North American sales director, said automotive molding is obviously the big market in Mexico, but other sectors are growing, too. Mexico's domestic mold manufacturing is evolving from primarily repaid and service to full-service mold making, he said.

Thermoforming equipment maker Brown Machine LLC was represented at Plastimagen by its longtime agent, Grupo Janfrex, based in Guadalajara.

Janfex founder and owner Jesús Avelar said the packaging market is a growing area in Mexico, both in retail goods and sales to restaurants.

“A big market in Mexico is disposable cups, and Brown has been a major supplier of this equipment,” Avelar said.

Officials of Italian auxiliary equipment manufacturer Moretto SpA decided to set up a separate exhibit at Plastimagen, instead of the company's traditional practice of sharing a booth with its agent in Mexico, Innovateck. But they did not stray very far — Innovateck's booth was right across the aisle.

Paolo Gasparotto, Moretto's business development manager, said the Mexican market for auxiliaries is about $25 million.

PET preform molders are the obvious big market for drying equipment in Mexico, but Tim Noggle, senior vice president of sales Novatec Inc. said other areas are strong.

“Medical is a market that's really growing in Mexico,” Noggle said. “Manufacturing here in Mexico is being more technical.”

At Plastimagen, Novatec exhibited at the booth of its distributor, Plastec USA.

Handling Novatec at the show were Noggle and Alex Vidal, vice president of business development. Vidal said the company sold a large PET dryer to a PET bottle maker with a plant in Mexico — proof that sector is investing.

“Mexico has been an important territory for Bekum for many years,” said C.J. Walls, regional sales and key accounts manager for Bekum America Corp.

Bekum offers several blow molding machines to reach key markets in Mexico, Walls said.

One is the stackable cannister market, blow molded by a special line of high-output, fully automated blow molder. Bekum offers both continuous extrusion machines and accumulator-head machines.

Another big area is large polycarbonate water bottles that hold from 18 to 20 liters, Walls said. Bekum's blow molding machine can turn out 160 bottles an hour, for what he said is a booming market in Mexico and Latin America.

Bekum, exhibiting with its agent, ABC Plasticos, also showed its quick mold change system for the first time in Mexico. Bekum first showed the tool-free system it at NPE2018. Walls said the magnetic clamping plates mean a mold change takes one person only about 15 minutes.

Bekum also was showing handleware bottles made with extrusion-grade PET. Walls said the attractive bottles stand out on store shelves.

And he said personal care products are becoming more popular, as Mexico's consuming class grows. The company targets the market with the Eblow 407DL. “This machine was specially designed to run small bottles at high speed,” Walls said.

StackTeck Systems Ltd., which began targeting Mexico in 2000, is winning more customers there, said Christopher Day, sales representative who is based in Guadalajara.

More molders of thin-wall packaging are using stack molds and in-mold labeling, Day said at Plastimagen. In Mexico, StackTeck also is growing in medical, closures, housewares and industrial, he said.

Simon Martin, StackTeck's vice president of sales, said consumer goods makers are using closures to different their products, throughout Latin America. At Plastimagen, StackTeck was displaying colorful IML lids for Campi-brand margarine, which is sold in Columbia.

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