PolyOne buys engineered fibers and composite materials supplier Fiber-Line

Polymer supplier PolyOne Corp. has acquired fibers and composites maker Fiber-Line for US$120 million.

Founded in 1987, Hatfield, Pa.-based Fiber-Line has annual sales of approximately US$100 million. The company has a total of five production facilities in North America, Europe, and Asia, and sells its products into the fiber optic cable, oil and gas, industrial and consumer industries. The firm also provides material science and polymer formulation expertise to engineer specified performance characteristics for fiber, including strength, abrasion and chemical resistance, and specialty colourants.

In a statement, Avon Lake, Ohio-based PolyOne said that Fiber-Line’s technologies complement its existing specialty composite solutions and wire & cable applications. Fiber-Line now becomes part of PolyOne’s Specialty Engineered Materials (SEM) unit.

“Fiber-Line is an innovative and unique addition to our portfolio of fiber and composite solutions with tremendous upside for growth,” said Robert Patterson, PolyOne’s chairman, president and CEO. “Through increased collaboration with customers, we’ll capture both near-term growth prospects as well as benefit from the expansion of 5G networks. Longer term, we expect future growth to be driven by significant technology synergies between fiber and composites, utilizing specialty colourants and coatings, which PolyOne is well positioned to develop.”