cfb_de
Düsseldorf (Reuters) – South Korean group Hyosung is resuming parts of the film production operations of the long-established, insolvent company AgfaPhoto. This offers new prospects for 50 employees who are currently employed by a temporary employment agency.
Parts of the division have been sold to Hyosung, AgfaPhoto announced on Wednesday. This will allow production to resume at the Leverkusen site. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
Since its insolvency in May 2005, AgfaPhoto has received numerous expressions of interest in continuing film stock production, said insolvency administrator Andreas Ringstmeier. Hyosung’s business model prevailed in the bidding process because it secures the most jobs in this division. The market for film stock is a growth market. Production is now to be restarted immediately in a rented building with the help of Hyosung, employing 50 former staff who were previously placed in a temporary employment agency. The workforce is expected to rise to 70 by the end of the financial year.
Source:
Reuters
According to verbal information, Ilford is the first customer of the ‘new’ company.
Best regards,
Franz
Petzi
I reckon Agfa Gevaert is also very interested in this.
Now all we need is a machine for film and paper coating, and then everything important will be sorted. ;)
cfb_de
I doubt anyone will come forward. The systems are too big for the remaining market and, once they’ve been switched on, they can’t really be restarted just like that.
After the #14 was moved, it took Ilford over a year to get the little machine running again, even though it had been assembled and tested flawlessly.
But the devil is in the detail, and hope springs eternal.
Best regards,
Franz
Petzi
The machines don’t necessarily have to be moved, after all. And I don’t really see why it would do any harm to switch the lights on. They’ve surely had to do that quite often for maintenance and repairs. The machines are certainly better than the ones used in Eastern Europe and China. So it would be a shame if this technology were to be lost.
Incidentally, I’d find it rather strange if it weren’t possible to maintain a decent film and paper coating industry in Europe given the existing demand. Otherwise, there’s probably no colour film or colour paper production left in Europe. If Kodak still has anything left, it can only be a matter of time before they pull out too. Fuji will soon be producing only in Japan.
So it looks as though, apart from the small black-and-white producers in Europe – some of whom still use Agfa’s pre-war machinery – there will be nothing left, and surely that cannot be right.
Gast
The machines don’t necessarily have to be moved, after all. And I don’t really see why it would do any harm to switch the lights on. They’ve surely had to do that quite often for maintenance and repairs. The machines are certainly better than the ones used in Eastern Europe and China. So it would be a shame if this technology were to be lost.
Incidentally, I do find it rather strange if it weren’t possible to maintain a decent film and paper coating industry in Europe given the existing demand. Otherwise, there’s probably no colour film or colour paper production left in Europe. If Kodak still has anything left, it can only be a matter of time before they pull out too. Fuji will soon be producing only in Japan.
So it looks as though, apart from the small black-and-white producers in Europe—some of whom still use pre-war Agfa machinery—nothing will remain, and that surely cannot be right.
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Don’t forget Ferrania in Italy, even if they only make amateur 35mm films; it’s no problem at all to expand the range if necessary.
Otherwise, any black-and-white manufacturer can produce colour films; it just means the film has to be coated three times.
If push comes to shove and only the ‘little backstreet firms’ are left, the folks in Samobor will dig out the ADOX-Color process from 1958 and Mirko will set up an ADOX-Color lab service.
cfb_de
Hello anonymous guest,
Ferrania has been solely a film processor for years now and no longer produces film itself.
Converting a black-and-white casting line to colour emulsion is also anything but straightforward. It is not enough simply to run the film through three times; the casting process takes place in a single pass across several stations on the same line. And you need to have this line, be able to operate it *and* utilise it to full capacity.
Buying an old line and bringing it back into operation is no simple matter, and has never before occurred in the history of plant engineering for colour film production. The world’s only relocation of a casting line took place at Ilford with the legendary #14. That was a black-and-white line, and it took over a year to get it up and running again. Mind you: it took more than a year from the plant’s initial start-up until consistent production was achieved. That was several *kilometres* of material that went through the system and ended up straight in the bin! Today, such a venture would be unaffordable for a successor company; back then, the British Queen stood as guarantor with her private fortune (and certainly lost a massive amount of money in the process).
That is probably why Hyosung only bought the substrate production and leaves the critical steps of film production to the companies that already do and are capable of doing so. The Leverkusen plants are and remain completely dead in the water when it comes to emulsion production and, at best, have scrap value amounting to a double-digit euro sum per tonne on collection. Bitter, but that’s just the way it is.
Anything else would really surprise me. Although: “Miracles do happen from time to time”.
Cutting and packaging pre-cast emulsions from the master roll, on the other hand, is straightforward: it requires comparatively simple machinery (compared to the effort involved in the casting process), and for roll films in a workshop, just a few tables and people willing to work on them in the dark.
That is why, for example, in Germany they now only assemble the film (e.g. in Wernigerode, Düren, Wolfen, Berlin and a few other factories). And – cheaper, but not quite of perfect quality – in Eastern Europe.
Unfortunately, due to EU environmental regulations, film casting in Hungary and Croatia will also soon be a thing of the past. The former state-owned enterprises are likely to face enormous difficulties in securing loans for the necessary upgrades to their exhaust air and waste water systems. After all, the market isn’t growing at double-digit rates...
Our future films will come from England (Ilford has secured its plant licence and has been playing the ‘old plant with grandfathering’ card for fifteen years), Australia (if Kodak still wants to afford the luxury) or China (if they can finally produce quality and the market wants ‘new’ emulations instead of TMX).
I consider film production in Croatia or Hungary to be a dying breed; perhaps the Czechs might manage it. Foma at least already has its own wastewater treatment, its own exhaust air filtration and something resembling hazardous substance monitoring in the workplace. They prepared for EU accession in good time. The others haven’t; they’re still floundering with the transition from a state-run combine to a private enterprise. That, at any rate, was my impression during the assessment. I won’t say any more than that for now. It was a confidential report.
It wasn’t without reason that Forte went into administration and Fotokemika is living from hand to mouth (or rather, on our ADOX purchases...). The necessary investments for EU environmental protection are likely to be extremely difficult or impossible for them. This will become acute from around 2012, and proper heavy-metal purification of process water from 1950s-era plants with 50 years of socialist wear and tear will be quite expensive. After all, you can’t buy that anywhere yet. So the only way forward is with the ‘tolerance’ of the state regulators (which is probably why they’re still state-owned enterprises...), the competition ‘turning a blind eye’, and enough disinterest from the customers.
I think that’s perfectly fine. After all, road-unsafe rust buckets are allowed to be driven as classic cars. So why shouldn’t I be able to buy an R50, Fortepan, Polywarmtone or other such stuff? The quantities are small, and so is the financial loss. Unfortunately, however, ‘regulations’ apply.
Best regards,
Franz
PhilippReichmuth
Franz,
Unfortunately, due to EU environmental regulations, film production in Hungary and Croatia will soon be a thing of the past... I consider film production in Croatia or Hungary to be a dying industry
It’ll probably be another ten years before Croatia joins the EU; the country only began accession
negotiations
last October. So we and efke still have a few years left.
Philipp
cfb_de
Nah. The industry’s ‘readiness to join’ is one of the key criteria.
And that’s why it’s already an issue for them today. Let’s see when they take note of that and put it into practice.
I suppose I should say ‘yesterday if possible’, though personally I’d find ‘Never-Never Day’ more fitting.
The existing Europe isn’t losing anything here. On the contrary: they’re gaining another area of maximum environmental protection (hm. Nobody gives a damn about the really important ecological reasons, do they?). A rule is a rule. And nobody asks for expertise, because politicians are the ones who make the rules.
Cheeriest regards,
Franz
Gast
Franz,
I was the one who posted that; I’m not familiar with the Ferrania bit – I’d be interested to know where you get your information from?
Besides, there are the Russians to consider, and they’re unlikely to join the EU in the next 30 years.
You can sort of cobble together colour films – the main thing is they’re colourful!
Roland
cfb_de
Hello Roland,
I’d be interested to know where you get your information from?
I read a lot, can remember quite a few things and have a few contacts :-) In the case of Ferrania, among others, from photo.net and drf.
Best regards,
Franz
Gast
Hello Roland,
I’d be interested to know where you get your information from?
I read a lot, can remember a few things and have a few contacts :-) In the case of Ferrania, among others, from photo.net and drf.
Best regards,
Franz
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Franz,
Well, maybe Mirko can say something about it; I just don’t believe it (it’s got nothing to do with you, maybe I just don’t want to believe it), in which case they’d at least be custom-made.
And on the other hand, the stuff the Americans always come up with is beyond belief.
Regards
Roland
cfb_de
Hello Roland,
You’re quite right about the Americans. There’s probably no other nation where conspiracy theories are so popular.
To get back to Ferrania: at Photokina 2004, they admitted at their own stand that they were no longer producing transparency film. Then came the collapse, and a few months ago the remaining parts of the company were sold to a group of investors.
Best regards,
Franz
