US bioplastics compound producer Cereplast (Seymour, Indiana; www.cereplast.com) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of Indiana. In a statement, the company said it has taken the action to “strengthen its balance sheet, clean up its capitalisation structure and gain financial flexibility as it continues to realign its operations." Cereplast CEO Frederic Scheer said: “We intend to use the reorganisation process to help implement our plan to lower costs, stabilise our businesses, grow revenue and diversify our product line.” The company intends to continue to operate during this process.

As part of the reorganisation, Cereplast said it plans to focus on producing traditional compounded products and recycling polyolefins, in addition to the manufacture of bioplastics made of diversified feedstocks including algae and PLA. The company is represented in Europe by Cereplast Italia SpA, located in Milan / Italy, where it commissioned a 50,000 t/y bioplastic compounds plant in 2012 (see Plasteurope.com of 09.11.2011). Further afield, the group set up a corporate office in Hyderabad / India in August 2012 – see Plasteurope.com of 03.09.2012.

Scheer said he believed that bioplastics demand in the US had been unreliable and that implementation of bioplastics regulation in Europe had been delayed, especially in Italy. The company had also encountered legal problems created by some of its lenders. He added that, despite having made successful efforts to improve the company’s operations over recent months, the board had decided that reorganisation was the best route. “We believe that this reorganisation will enable us to reduce our debt and implement operational changes, while maintaining our commitment to the environment,” Scheer concluded. Cereplast is presently negotiating debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing from several interested parties.