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Lanxess Opens New Central & East Europe Headquarters

Chemical manufacturer Lanxess AG has responded to the growing popularity of Central and Eastern Europe as hubs for tyre manufacturing by establishing a new headquarters for its distribution company Lanxess Central Eastern Europe s.r.o. Located in the Slovakian capital Bratislava, the headquarters officially opened on February 15, and all business activities in Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary are now controlled from this location. The company also intends to operate branch offices in Warsaw and Budapest. Previously, Lanxess organised its operations in Central and Eastern Europe through external distribution agencies.

19th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

New Lanxess Rubber Facility for Singapore

It appears as if chemical manufacturer Lanxess will build a new rubber facility in Singapore. According to a Reuters report, the German company will spend about 400 million euros setting up a butyl rubber facility in the city state.

The facility will primarily service the tyre industry, and Singapore was one of several countries, including Malaysia and Thailand, vying for selection. So far no official comment has been made by Lanxess.

12th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess India to Begin Tyre Chemical Production in 2010

Specialty chemicals group Lanxess AG intends to invest 50 million euros in relocating production of rubber chemicals from Thane, in the Indian state of Maharastra to Jhagadia, in Gujarat. Production will begin in 2010 and will supply the rapidly growing Indian tyre market. Lanxess is the only western company to establish such operations in India.

Lanxess will employ about 250 people at the Jhagadia site during its first stage of expansion. The head office of Lanxess India Private Limited will, however, remain in Thane. Jhagadia will become the company’s second production site in India after Madurai in Tamil Nadu, southern India, and will be the larger of the two.

18th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess Releases New Tyre Additive

Specialty chemicals group Lanxess has developed a new high-performance rubber additive. Known as Nanoprene, this material additive for tyre tread compound is reported to significantly reduce the rate of wear in a tyre. Lanxess adds that this reduction in wear achieved through the use of this additive does not in any way impact on rolling resistance or wet grip.

“Boosting tyre service life without losing other key tread properties was a major challenge for the rubber industry,” explains Nanoprene developer Professor Werner Obrecht, rubber expert at the Lanxess Technical Rubber Products (TRP) business unit. “Despite all the positive developments of the last 20 years, after travelling around 40,000 kilometres, the tread pattern is normally worn and new tyres are then needed. This is not only annoying for the customer, since the fine rubber particles created by the tyre wear ultimately end up in the environment.”

15th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess Extends NdPBR Production to Meet UHP Tyre Demand

Lanxess reports that its facility in Orange, Texas began production of neodymium polybutadiene (NdPBR) in September. The decision to commence production of these chemicals was apparently made in response to increased demand for NdPBR and SSBR in high-performance tyre applications.

Timothy Rae, NAFTA region head of marketing for the Lanxess Polybutadiene Rubber (PBR) business unit, comments: “The additional production also enhances our capability to meet the US demand for domestic cobalt polybutadiene (CoPBR) with complementary NdPBR grades. This is an important step to fulfilling our strategy as a reliable supplier of high-performance PBR products from multiple locations worldwide.”

16th October 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess Signs Agreement with China’s BRDI

Only days after announcing its intention of investing around 400 million euros in a new facility in Asia, Lanxess’s Polybutadiene Rubber business unit has signed a three-year co-operation agreement with the Beijing Research & Design Institute of Rubber Industry (BRDI). The BRDI is China’s national testing centre for tyres and a leading research institute, possessing both the facilities and staff required to engage in advanced research into tyre and rubber products, engineering design for the rubber industry, machinery and equipment and testing of rubber and rubber articles.

“The co-operation will put our efforts to explore and further penetrate the world’s fastest growing tyre market on a firm footing,” said Christoph Kalla, head of Marketing in Lanxess’s Polybutadiene Rubber business unit. “It will also make use of BRDI’s respective strength in customising the application of Lanxess’s high-performance polybutadiene rubber and solution styrene-butadiene rubber grades in China.

4th July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess Investing to Meet Asian Tyremakers’ Needs

Chemical group Lanxess has plans to expand its global position in the butyl rubber market and is pursuing plans to build a new facility in Asia. The company will invest somewhere in the vicinity of 400 million euros in the project and at present three possible sites – Singapore, Kuantan in Malaysia and Map Ta Phut in Thailand – are under consideration. Lanxess has reportedly already analysed a number of sites across Asia to assess their feasibility.

“This would be the largest investment in the history of our company,” said Lanxess management board chairman Axel C. Heitmann during a visit to Singapore. “In the next few months we will hold talks with possible host locations to determine the feasibility of the construction of a new plant. Should we decide upon a location, we will be able to bring the facility on stream in 2010.”

With this new investment Lanxess hopes it can further satisfy the growing demand for butyl rubber in Asia. Tyre production will continue to be the main use of butyl and Lanxess anticipates the continued rapid increase of the manufacturing capacity of Asian tyremakers.

2nd July 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Chinese Exhibition Well Positioned for Growth

International News, Product News

The fourth China International Rubber & Tyre Industry Exhibition 2007 (RTF), held between May 11 and 13 in the city of Qingdao, Shandong Province, was the largest in the show’s history. Sponsored by the Shandong Provincial Rubber Industry Association and organised by Qingdao Jinnuo Exhibition Co. Ltd., RTF has become China’s third largest tyre and rubber exhibition, attracting 120 exhibitors and 4,200 attendees from around the world. Some of the exhibition’s major participants included Lanxess, Sartomer, Daikin, Schill+Seilacher, NDC, U-Can, Instron, Berstorff, Mesnac, Triangle, Linglong, Doublestar and Sailun.

The key events at RTF 2007 included a number of high-profile conferences held in conjunction with the exhibition – the Chinese Rubber Industry Information Release Conference, organised by the Shandong Provincial Rubber Industry Association, and the Qingdao International Rubber-Plastics Conference, organised by Qingdao University of Science and Technology. These events attracted nearly 600 industrial industry professionals.

12th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess Signs Long-Term Contract with Hankook

Lanxess AG has announced that its Polybutadiene Rubber business unit has signed a five-year supply contract with South Korean tyre manufacturer Hankook Tire. According to the AFX news agency, no financial details were disclosed. Lanxess’s Polybutadiene Rubber business unit is part of the company’s Performance Rubber segment, which reported sales of 1.776 billion euros in 2006.

9th May 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

The 6th International Exhibition on Tyres and Rubber Technology

International News, News, Product News

China’s leading rubber exhibition – Tyres & RubberTech China 2006 (organized by China United Rubber Group Corporation) will take place from 20-22 November 2006 at INTEX Shanghai. The trade fair will occupy an exhibition area of 12,000 square metres, signifying a growth of 100 per cent from the 2005 event. More 400 exhibitors and about 8,000 trade visitors are expected to meet at the exhibition.

12th June 2006/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess Announces Chinese Tyre Joint Venture

Lanxess has announced that it is strengthening its position in the Chinese tyre market by entering into a joint venture with Anhui Tongfeng Electronic Co Ltd. The agreement will see the company produce rubber antioxidants for the tyre industry and is due to come on stream in the second half of next year, said Martin Wienkenhoever, a member of Lanxess’ board of management. “At present due to the [World Trade Organization] we see that the American and European market is shifting to China,” he said. “Some of (the investment) is a also going to India, Vietnam and other countries – but the mainstream companies are still going into China and the lower-end manufacturing is going to other destinations, but we are not so active in that.”

12th July 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess Increase Production

Lanxess has concluded the first stage of a program to increase production of neodymium polybutadiene rubber, or Nd-PBR in response to growing demand for high performance rubber.

The program will modify existing manufacturing lines so that multiple grades of material can be produced on the same line, including Nd-catalyzed PBR as well as lithium-PBR and solution styrene butadiene rubber SSBR.

25th May 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess Reports Sales and Earnings Improvements

Preliminary reports show that Germany chemical company Lanxess AG increased its sales and earnings in 2004, benefiting from a general upturn in the industry. The company significantly improved on its operating results achieving 59 million euros EBIT, recovering from a 1.3 billion euro loss in 2004. According to the un-audited figures, sales rose more than 7 per cent to 6.773 billion euros in 2004. Earnings (EBITDA) for the reporting period increased by 44 per cent to 447 million euros. At the same time the company reduced net debt to around 1.1 billion euros. In the final quarter of 2004, the company posted a fourth-quarter operating loss (EBIT) of 17 million euros, following a loss of 1.2 billion euros in the same period of 2003.

16th March 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Lanxess Inaugrates New HQ

Lanxess, the Japanese subsidiary of the Leverkusen-based chemicals group, has inaugurated its new headquarters in Tokyo.

Referring to the ceremony, Dr Martin Wienkenhöver, Lanxess board member, who is in charge of Asian business, said that Japan is “the most important market in Asia.” The company manufacturers solid rubber for automotive tyres in Japan and other countries.

7th March 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

US Investors Hold 5 per cent of Lanxess

Tyre industry supplier Lanxess, a spin-off of German company Bayer AG, was brought to the stock exchange at the end of January. Now, US investment group Greenlight has announced that it has already purchased more than five per cent of Lanxess’ shares.

21st February 2005/by Tyrepress Editors