The Technical Rubber Products (TRP) business unit of specialty chemicals group Lanxess AG has increased its prices effective for NBR (nitrile-butadiene rubber) in Europe. Effective June 15, price per tonne has rises to 210 euros. Lanxess claims the increase is “unavoidable” as costs for raw materials have risen significantly.
Diversified Century Textiles & Industries Ltd has reportedly suspended production of tyre yarn at its Century Rayon plant in Kalyan, a Mumbai suburb. According to a Reuters report, the firm is halting production of viscose filament yarn and tyre yarn “due to adverse market scenario and demand slowdown.” Century Rayon, which makes rayon, tyre cord and chemicals, has an annual production of 25,000 tonnes of textile and tyre yarn.
Ground has been broken on Lanxess’ new butyl rubber factory site in Singapore. When completed, the Jurong Island facility will have a 100,000 tonne capacity, which Lanxess states will enable it to meet the rising Chinese and Indian demand for butyl rubber to use tyre production. Following a total investment of up to 400 million euros – 10 to 15 per cent of which will be directed into environmental protection measures – production is anticipated to get underway in the first quarter of 2013.
The official start to work on Lanxess’ first production facility in Russia, located in Dzerzhinsk in the Nizhny Novgorod region, began on May 13. When completed at the start of 2011 the plant, operated by Lanxess subsidiary Rhein Chemi, will produce rubber chemcials for the Russia and CIS markets.
The prices of certain Lanxess plastic and rubber chemicals, including some used in the tyre manufacturing process, are increasing at of April 1, 2010. The company’s Rubber Chemicals business unit will raise prices for its Vulkanox, Vulkacit and Renacit products by up to 20 euro cents per kilogram, depending on product and region. Vulkanox is used as an antioxidant, Vulkacit as an accelerator and Renacit as a peptizer, and are used in the production of various rubber products, including tyres, hoses and driving belts.
After finishing the 2009 financial year on a high note in the last quarter, specialty chemicals group Lanxess has expressed confidence for the 2010 year. This sense of optimism, it says, is supported by the company’s development within the Asia/Pacific and further boosted by savings generated from its “Challenge09-12” package of measures. “We therefore expect a significant year-on-year improvement in earnings, even if there is currently no sign of a self-sustaining upswing,” said Axel C. Heitmann, chairman of the Lanxess AG Board of Management.
Some 20 million euros are to be invested in increasing production of Neodymium Polybutadiene (Nd-PBR) rubber at Lanxess’s sites at Dormagen in Germany, Orange (Texas), USA and Cabo in Brazil. In total, 50,000 additional tonnes of the high-performance rubber will be manufactured at the three sites once the extra capacities go on stream between the first quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012.
The first phase of construction at the new Lanxess rubber chemical plant in Jhagadia, India has been completed. The German specialty chemicals firm reports production at the Gujarat state facility has begun following a building time of less than two years. The site will now supply India’s growing tyre and rubber industry and export markets with ‘Vulkanox’ brand antioxidants.
German specialty chemicals manufacturer Lanxess AG has adjusted its earnings forecast for the 2009 business year after preliminary unaudited results revealed what it calls a “significantly better than expected” fourth quarter. The company now expects to achieve pre-exceptional EBITA of 450-470 million euros for full year 2009 after previously forecasting 400-420 million euros upon the publication of the third quarter results in November 2009. LANXESS posted EBITDA pre-exceptionals of 721 million euros in 2008.
According to Lanxess, life “just wouldn’t be the same without synthetic rubber.” Such a claim may be expected from one of the world’s largest synthetic rubber producers, but the German firm does make a good point – the areas of application for this material are extremely diverse, ranging from automotive engineering, the tyre industry and energy generation to medicine, sports and aerospace. To celebrate a centenary of synthetic rubber, between February 18 and September 30 Lanxess is partnering with the Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim in Southwest Germany and devoting an exhibition to this elastic all-rounder.
Recent advances from the tyre industry’s leading manufacturers and technology providers have been acknowledged at this year’s Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence. The ceremony, held on the evening of February 10 in conjunction with the Tire Technology Expo show in Cologne, Germany, covers five categories.
Demand for butyl rubber is growing in the Asia-Pacific, and in order to better serve customers in this region, Lanxess AG intends to relocate its Butyl Rubber business unit headquarters there next year. The company made an announcement to this effect on November 9, and as of 2010 the headquarters will thus leave Fribourg in Switzerland and join the Singapore based Southeast Asian businesses of Lanxess’ 13 business units.
Lanxess has begun moving its Canada based butyl research and development centre into a new premises attached to the University of Western Ontario. The relocation to the city of London, which will see more than 100 staff from Lanxess’s operations in nearby Sarnia transfer to the new site, was announced in mid-2008 and gives the chemical company the opportunity to gain easier access to scientists at the university.
Following earlier reports that Continental AG is considering producing some of its truck tyres in cooperation with Nizhnekamskshina, a spokesperson for Continental’s truck tyre division explained that the company is: “…not involved in either the construction or investment.” Continental’s representatives refuted rumours that the German manufacturer will establish its own manufacture of light commercial vehicle tyres in Russia after the subsequent close of its Hannover-Stöcken production site in Germany. “We are – as we have said – already providing technology and know-how. The decision as to whether tyres will be manufactured for us there is completely open. If we choose to produce there, it will be to secure a share in the growth of the Russian and CIS markets. We do not intend to produce for other markets,” he continued. The company made it clear that the Continental “technology” delivered to Nizhnekamsk will not be the used production equipment from the Stöcken plant.
On September 12 the specialty chemical supplier Lanxess AG celebrated the 100th anniversary of synthetic rubber. The patent for the substance that would later significantly benefit the tyre world was granted exactly a century earlier to German chemist Fritz Hofmann, an employee to Lanxess predecessor company Elberfelder Farbenfabriken. To mark the occasion, Lanxess held a scientific colloquium in Cologne, Germany. More than 400 guests from 18 nations attended the event in order to learn more on the latest innovations in the field, the substance’s future possibilities and its market potential.
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