Titan-Polymer sends its first BOPET film shipment to Turkey

A first consignment for Turkey

Titan-Polymer has sent its first BOPET film consignment to Turkey under a long-term contract. The Titan Group subsidiary in Russia's Pskov Region reported a shipment exceeding 20 tonnes, comprising transparent and metallized film with chemical coating.

Commercial director Maxim Filippov described Turkey as a further step in expanding overseas sales. He said the plant already supplied several dozen companies in Russia and other CIS countries, including manufacturers of packaging, cable products, electrical equipment and construction materials.

Second-line commissioning preceded the shipment

The plant had completed commissioning of its second BOPET line by Feb 2, 2024. General director Kirill Neretin said production was stable and the enterprise was increasing its operating capacity. Specialists had checked installations and equipment parameters at each stage before the line's launch.

The second line was intended to bring the plant closer to its maximum design capacity of 72,000 tonnes annually. This was a design figure for the facility's yearly production; an achieved annual output and utilization percentage were not disclosed with the commissioning update.

Earlier customer trials addressed packaging operations

A flexible-food-packaging customer had tested a production batch of chemically coated CGPX film, 12 microns thick, before the Turkish shipment. Titan-Polymer announced the results on Sep 6, 2023, without naming the customer. The converting tests covered three operations:

• Printing on the film;
• Ink adhesion to its surface;
• Adhesive lamination with another material.

The producer said the batch passed the tests. Multilayer laminates made with these films were intended for food packaging and technical products. The trials concerned the earlier CGPX batch; the grade and thickness of the Turkish consignment were not specified in the July announcement.

In February, the plant was taking orders for film between 8 and 35 microns thick, Neretin said. Its BOPET production was automated. Food production, medicine and electrical engineering were among the applications identified for this material when the second line entered service.

The factory operates in the Moglino special economic zone in Pskov District. Titan-Polymer's production complex was established to develop domestic supplies and exports of biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate film, the material abbreviated as BOPET.