WEB EXCLUSIVE: SABIC Innovative Plastics, Pittsfield, Mass., recently opened a specialty polypropylene compounding operation at its Bay St. Louis, Miss., facility. The new plant will produce SABIC PP compounds and Stamax long-glass PP pellets, both primarily for automotive applications.This is SABIC’s first North American production of Stamax. This product was used in the Grand Award winner of the 2011 SPE Automotive Innovation Awards in November. The part was the Ford Escape/Kuga instrument panel, molded by Faurecia using MuCell microcellular foam technology from Trexel Inc., Wilmington, Mass. (see link in Editors Picks above).