Raw Materials
Pirelli is raising its prices “up to 9 per cent” in all European and North American markets for car, light truck and moto tyres of all product ranges (summer, all-season, winter) and across all group brands.
Currency issues have hindered Pirelli’s efforts to obtain raw materials for its factories in Venezuela, and as a result the company will halt production there on 30 January. Reuters writes that operations will stop for a fortnight, restarting on 13 February using raw materials provided by another company division.
The leading Taiwanese tyre manufactures are reportedly planning to raise prices by between 8-12 per cent during 2017. According to local news reports, the price hike is a reaction to the jump in synthetic rubber and natural rubber prices.
Rubber prices are expected to rise this year, and in response to the anticipated direction that this commodity and other raw materials will take in 2017, Trelleborg has announced a five per cent price increase for its industrial and construction tyres in Europe. The new pricing takes effect 1 February 2017.
Birla Carbon was recognized as a leading supplier to Pirelli at an awards ceremony held by the tyre maker in September. The company was only carbon black supplier to receive the award from Pirelli.
Solvay has commenced production of Highly Dispersible Silica (HDS) at its new state-of-the-art plant in Gunsan, South Korea. The plant has an annual capacity of more than 80,000 tons and is producing Solvay’s most advanced grades of HDS – many of which are used in fuel efficient tyre compounds.
DRT has agreed to buy Pinova Inc., the specialty resins and chemical intermediates manufacturer. DRT will acquire Pinova Inc. and its diversified portfolio of industry applications as well as its Brunswick manufacturing site from Symrise for US$150 million. Pinova Inc.’s 2016 sales are expected to total about $111 million.
As part of the transaction, Symrise and DRT have also agreed on a co-operation for individual product development projects as well as for the supply of strategic raw materials.
Saudi Arabia-based diversified chemicals company SABIC is launching a new range of synthetic rubbers, which are being manufactured for the first time in Saudi. The products made their debut at the K-Show Europe Exhibition in Dusseldorf, Germany, 19-26 October 2016.
Trinseo announced that it will expand capacity for Solution-Styrene Butadiene Rubber (S-SBR) on 24 October 2016. According to the company, this increased investment is a direct response to rising customer demand for this technology.
Initial data suggests graphene tyres offer 1.5x better rolling resistance and better mileage, braking 2016 has been the year that graphene has been most clearly and most publically associated with tyres. And with initial reports suggesting this material could have a dramatic effect on rolling resistance (and therefore emissions) as well as treadwear, it seems […]
Sentury and Huagao launched their first electrostatic conducting graphene tyre at the 2016 China International Graphene Innovation Conference (GrapChina) on 22 September. The launch comes less than a month after Sentury and Huagao officially announced their cooperation on the product.
Shangdong Hengyu Technology has become the latest tyre manufacturer to announce that it is making tyres based on the Nobel Prize-winning material graphene. Other firms using graphene in tyres include bicycle tyremaker Vitorria and fast-growing Chinese manufacturer Sentury Tire.
According to the company supplying Hengyu with Graphene (The Sixth Element Materials Technology), Shangdong Hengyu has developed “tyre formulations” that the companies say demonstrates the positive impact of graphene on the performance of tyres.
On 29 September Lanxess announced plans to acquire US-based Chemtura Corporation, one of the major global providers of flame retardant and lubricant additives.
Under the terms of the two parties’ agreement, Chemtura shareholders will receive US$33.50 per share in cash for each outstanding share of common stock held, which represents an 18.9 per cent premium to the stock’s closing share price of $28.18 on 23 September 2016. The 2.4 billion euro transaction will be financed by Lanxess mainly through senior and hybrid bonds and is expected to close around mid-2017.
Scientists working on Cooper Tire & Rubber’s guayule rubber project have reportedly reached a key milestone on the path to producing, by mid-2017, a concept tyre in which guayule-based polymers replace all natural and synthetic rubbers. Their testing has shown guayule to be an effective substitute material in certain components, with tyres produced using these components offering comparative performance to their conventional counterparts.
Solvay, Sylvaine Neveu, a researcher at the firm’s Research and Innovation entity within the group’s Global Business Unit Silica, has won the Irène Joliot-Curie 2016 award for work on energy saving tyre technology. She was honoured in the category “Woman, Research and Enterprise”, granted by the French Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Research.
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