text: Spanish-firm-Molecor-targets-Mexico-with-PVC-O-process
  Spanish firm Molecor targets Mexico with PVC-O process
  Spanish molecular oriented PVC pipe maker and technology provider Molecor Tecnologia SL is eyeing the Americas as it seeks to expand across the world.
  The company, founded in Madrid in 2006, is making a marketing push in Mexico, the home territory of Mexichem SAB de CV, the largest PVC pipe and specialty chemicals manufacturer in Latin America.
  Mexichem uses Amanco PVC-O technology after acquiring multinational pipe maker Grupo Amanco of São Paulo for $500 million in February 2007.
  "We're looking for contacts, showing our technology in Latin America," Molecor representative Manuel Correia said at the Plastimagen México trade show, held in Mexico City from Oct. 4-7.
  "Smaller companies are seeking ways of competing with Mexichem," said his colleague Lorena Gutiérrez.
  PVC-O technology was first introduced in 1980, and its use became more widespread after 1995, when in-line systems were introduced. Oriented PVC pipe has superior mechanical properties including strength and resistance to cracks.
  To date Molecor has sold its PVC-O technology to two companies in Latin America, one in Ecuador, the other in Colombia, according to Gutiérrez, sales deparment executive.
  The Ecuador buyer is Plásticos Rival, founded in Cuenca in 1976. The company started using the technology at the beginning of this year.
  Correia and Gutiérrez did not name the Colombian client and she said the machine sold in that country had yet to be installed.
  "Canada and the United States will be markets for us next year," Gutiérrez said. "We are negotiating in India, which will be one of the most important countries for us.
  "We are also working in Russia," she said. "The Russian market is [polyethylene] and we are basically PVC, so it's difficult to change the market," she said. Nevertheless, progress is being made, she added.
  Molecor obtained a manufacturer's certificate in 2009, said Gutiérrez. "Since then we've been working hard to get a name in this sector, which is conservative and traditional." Molecor also has sold pipe in Spain, France and North Africa and machinery in Australia.
  Its technology can produce pipes ranging in diameter from 4 inches to 24.8 inches and is able to withstand 25-bar water pressure. Gutiérrez claimed that is superior to anything produced by Mexichem.
  Mexichem did not respond to several telephone and emailed requests for an interview during Plastimagen México.
  Molecor has two divisions, Molecor Tech and Molecor Canalizaciones, which is the manufacturing operation headed by Antonio Arenas. The chief financial officer is José Manuel Romero.
  Muñoz, Arenas and Romero are the three founding partners of Molecor, which employs 52 — 60 percent of whom have university degrees and whose average age is 30, according to Gutiérrez.