German specialty chemicals group Lanxess has founded a dedicated company for the Middle East, Lanxess Middle East GmbH. The company has its offices in Dubai and is being headed up by managing director Elie Saad, who has held a number of positions within the Lanxess group and was most recently the head of the global polymer additives business in within the company’s Functional Chemicals business unit.
The cost of rubber chemicals supplied by Lanxess AG will increase on April 1. The German company says its Rubber Chemicals business unit is raising prices in response to “steeply rising raw material costs” and the increase affects almost the entire product range of antioxidants (Vulkanox, Vulkazon), accelerators (Vulkacit) and specialty chemicals (including Renacit, Cohedur, Perkalink and Vulcuren). The new prices will around 15 to 25 per cent higher than current prices, depending on product and region.
In 2010 the Rhein Chemie Group achieved a 40 per cent year-on-year growth in sales; the wholly owned Lanxess subsidiary says its 283 million euro sales for the year outstrip those of the “record” year 2008. “We can clearly see that the rigorous implementation of our growth strategy is bearing fruit,” stated Dr. Anno Borkowsky, CEO and president of Rhein Chemie Rheinau GmbH. “In Germany, we increased sales by 30 per cent while in Asia growth was even stronger.”
Lanxess has announced the temporary closure of its office in Tokyo. For the time being, management from the Tokyo office will be based in Toyohasi, some 250 kilometres southwest of the Japanese capital. The specialty chemicals firm’s Rhein Chemie operates a production facility for rubber chemicals in Toyohashi.
Isobutene is a key raw material needed in the manufacture of butyl rubber, and traditionally this substance has been produced from fossil fuel sources. Yet Lanxess, the world’s largest purchaser of isobutene, believes that – in the words of its Board of Management chairman Axel Heitmann – it is “only prudent” to seek alternative supply options from renewable sources. For this reason the German specialty chemicals manufacturer recently increased its minority shareholding in US based renewable chemicals company Gevo Inc. Following a US$10 million private placement investment made in May 2010, Lanxess has now invested $17 million in Gevo’s initial public offering, giving it a 9.1 per cent shareholding.
At its February 3 extraordinary meeting, the Lanxess AG Supervisory Board agreed to revoke the contract of chief financial officer and Board of Management member Matthias Zachert. This measure was taken at Zachert’s request, Lanxess reports. The 43-year old has served on the Lanxess Board of Management since 2004.
Specialty chemicals group Lanxess says it intends to intensify communication with political and social leaders on a global level. As a first step towards accomplishing this, the company is expanding its presence in Berlin with the move to a new liaison office in the German capital. This office will open on January 20, prior to the “Lanxess Kick-Off Berlin 2011” event. Lanxess also intends to open an office in Brussels some time in the spring.
More fatal traffic accidents occur in India than in any other country. According to the World Health Organisation, the country’s road toll has risen consistently since the start of the last decade and now an average of 13 people die in road accidents every hour. A study by the Technical University of Munich puts the total death toll from traffic accidents in 2008 at 120,000 – a massive figure considering India has only 15 registered vehicles for every 1,000 inhabitants. By comparison, the UK boasts 458 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants yet figures from the Department for Transport show indicate just over 2,200 traffic fatalities in 2009: one third the vehicles of India along with a death toll more than fifty times lower.
The acquisition of two businesses belonging to Solutia Inc. subsidiary Flexys is intended to strengthen the product portfolio chemical specialist Lanxess’ offers its customers from the tyre and rubber industries. Pending approval from the relevant antitrust authorities, the company will incorporate Flexsys’ primary accelerator business and Perkalink 900 anti-reversion agent into its Rubber Chemicals business unit. Lanxess has not disclosed any financial aspects of the acquisitions and reports that no Flexsys employees will be transferred to Lanxess.
Tire Review reports that specialty chemicals firm Lanxess predicts an increase in demand for synthetic rubber in India, a country the company said has a long history in the production and consumption of natural rubber. “Driven by the needs of rapid modernisation, India is currently undergoing a shift toward replacing natural with synthetic rubber in a variety of applications,” the company said.
Germany’s Lanxess AG reports it is evaluating viability of building a new neodymium polybutadiene rubber facility in Asia. The company has already taken steps to increase its capacity for producing the substance, an essential ingredient in the manufacture of high performance tyres, at its plants in Germany, Brazil and the US. The decision to expand capacity at existing plants was made in order to meet demand in the “green tyre” market, which Lanxess notes has an annual global growth rate of about 9.0 per cent, making it the industry’s fastest growing segment. A study into the feasibility of a 100,000 to 150,000 tonne per annum Nd-PBR plant in Asia is currently underway, and Lanxess says a final decision on the project will be made within the next six months.
Elemica, the B2B supply chain network, is celebrating 10 years in business and the first anniversary of its merger with RubberNetwork. Founded by 22 top chemical companies in 2000 as an e-commerce hub linking buyers and sellers, Elemica has grown into a global company offering supply chain solutions for customer management, supplier management, logistics management and sourcing management. According to the company, these services and solutions “drive bottom line results through improved operational efficiency between trading partners with reduced costs and enhanced supply chain reliability.” Today, Elemica’s client base represents greater than $480 billion in chemical and tyre and rubber industry revenue.
Upon releasing chemical manufacturer Lanxess AG’s financial results for the second quarter of 2010, the company’s Board of Management chairman Axel Heitmann commented on the ten best-selling Lanxess products: “This list features eight rubber products from the Butyl Rubber and Performance Butadiene Rubbers business units for the manufacture of tyres,” he stated.
Production capacity at Lanxess’ butyl rubber facility in Zwijndrecht, Belgium is to be expanded by ten per cent to meet growing global demand for butyl and halobutyl synthetic rubber. The company has announced its intention to invest 20 million euros to lift annual capacity by 14,000 tonnes to around 149,000 tonnes, with the required work being mainly undertaken during a scheduled plant turnaround in the third quarter of 2011. The changes necessary to accommodate this higher capacity are anticipated to be in place and completed in the second quarter of 2012, and Lanxess comments the plant will produce a “superior quality” of butyl rubber.
Following the naming of key suppliers for its new 400 million euro butyl rubber plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island, Lanxess states that the facility’s project execution phase, in which the infrastructure necessary for the plant’s construction is being set up, is now in “full swing”. The current construction schedule calls for the plant to be ready in time for production to start in the first quarter of 2013.
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