Swedish TPE and compound producer Hexpol (Malmö; www.hexpol.com) has selected MLPlastics (Hamburg; www.mlplastics.de) to be its distributor in northern Germany. Founded in 2003, MLPlastics focuses on the development, production and distribution of technical polymer compounds and is active in the European, US, Chinese and South African markets.

MLPlastics is expected to support the market expansion of Hexpol's TPE brands, "Lifoflex" and "Dryflex", with grades based on TPS (SBS and SEBS), TPO and TPV technologies. Dryflex and Lifoflex are used primarily in the automotive, construction, consumer and electronics markets. The Germans will also be working with Hexpol’s range of complementary flexible polymer compounds including "Lifolit" soft PVC, "Lifocork" cork compounds, "Lifoprene" TPU and "Lifobatch" colour and additive masterbatches.

As one of the terms of the partnership, MLPlastics will work closely with the Bavarian team from TPE specialist Müller Kunststoffe (Lichtenfels; www.mueller-kunststoffe.com), which became a member of the Swedish polymer group in early 2013. The company will also be in close contact with technical specialists in the UK and Sweden.