ASCEND PERFORMANCE MATERIALS

Company Overview

This company is a relatively new addition to our listing of barrier plastics companies, but its business is an old one. In 2009, SK Capital Partners purchased the polyamide (nylon) business and assets of Solutia Inc. for about $50 million-plus a 2% equity in the new company. SK named the nylon business Ascend Performance Materials and set up offices in Houston.

Ascend’s nylon 6/6 product line ranges from fiber resins to film extrusion grades. Production plants and technology centers are in Cantonment (near Pensacola), Fla.; Chocolate Bayou, Texas; Decatur and Foley, Ala; and Greenwood, S.C. The company makes both monomers, adipic acid, and hexamethylenediamine, included in the purchase from Solutia, at its Pensacola facility.

At the time of our last update, Ascend continued to use Solutia’s old tradenames such as Vydyne and Ascend (the latter name used to name the new company) for molding and film resins and Ultron for carpet fibers. Now all extrusion grade resins are sold under the Vydyne name, and Ascend is the family name for fiber nylon. Ultron continues to be its carpet fiber trade name.

Nylon thin films are promoted for their high-temperature resistance, tear strength and clarity. Microwaveable meals, juices and other fluids, and meat packaging are target markets. Ascend, like Solutia before it, does not seem to promote the barrier properties of its nylon packaging films, but users know and use them for this feature as well as for strength and clarity. In its brochures, the only mention of oxygen barrier film is in conjunction with noting new copolymers.

Company's Business Segments

• Chemical Manufacturing : This segment of company includes Manufacturing of Chemicals, PA 66 plastics, Nylon Manufacturing, Fibers, and Engineered Plastics.