The Star, 26th June 1999
Plastics products and mould manufacturer STS Tecnic Bhd hopes to capture a huge
portion of the glass bottle market with its special translucent polypropylene (PP) bottles
capable of withstanding hot liquid up to 100 degree Celsius.
Its group general manager Wong Thiam Choy said the company, which had already
invested RM4mil to upgrade blowing machines, would start production in August 1999.
“Bottles made from polypropylene (PP) will be able
to withstand heat up to 100 degree Celsius compared with the widely used
bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which can only withstanding heat up to
70 degree Celsius,” he said.
Wong told Star Business after the company AGM in Bangi yesterday that glass
bottles were widely used by the hot-fill industry for storing hot
liquid which could not be kept normal plastic bottles.
Wong said although PP had been used to produce plastics capable of withstanding
extreme heat, PP bottles made using traditional plastic blowing technology were opaque.
“With the new technology, we can manufacture translucent PP bottles and
enable users to store ht liquid and see the contents in them,” he said.
Wong said PP bottles could compete against glass bottles because the PP bottles
were cheaper to produce, recyclable and not easily broken.
“We have already approached several companies in the hot-fill industry and
had received favourable responses from them,” he said.
STS Technic recorded a pre-tax loss of Rm11.1mil on a turnover of RM53.9mil for
the year ended Dec 31, 1998.
Its managing director Tan Hiok Tong said the loss was attributed to lower sales
volumes, thin profit margins, higher provisions for bad debts, interest charges and
certain fixed assets which had been written down to recoverable amounts as a result of the
economic downturn.
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