DuPont polymers to increase prices
Effective July 1, or as soon as contracts allow, DuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers has announced that it will increase prices globally for the following products: DuPont Zytel and Zytel HTN.
Effective July 1, or as soon as contracts allow, DuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers has announced that it will increase prices globally for the following products: DuPont Zytel and Zytel HTN.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) covering the co-development of synthetic rubber technologies has been signed between Hankook Tire and Arlanxeo. Under the terms of the MoU, the two companies will jointly study and develop new high-performance synthetic rubber grades and applications, with the aim of increasing tyre performance from the early stages of product development.
Prices for Arlanxeo Buna and X_Butyl products have risen from 1 May 2018, an increase that Arlanxeo says have been “driven by the overall market situation.” Customers have been individually contacted regarding the price increases.
Pirelli has signed a contract with synthetic rubber maker Nizhnekamskneftekhim to establish supply in 2018. According to Nizhnekamskneftekhim, the contract was signed during a working visit to Milan by the president of the Republic of Tatarstan in December.
Russian rubber and petrochemicals manufacturer Nizhnekamskneftekhim signed an agreement to provide synthetic rubber to Michelin during a meeting held in late June.
A delegation from the Russian company, including Vladimir Busygin, chairman of the board of directors and other senior officials, visited Michelin’s R&D center in Clermont-Ferrand, France to discuss the supply of new brands of synthetic rubber to the tyre maker.
According to reports recently published by Research and Markets, the global solution styrene butadiene rubber (S-SBR) market is expected to reach US$5.40 billion by 2025, while the global polybutadiene market is expected to reach US$5.83 billion by that date.
On 8 February a team of researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, announced that they have invented a new technology to produce automobile tyres from trees and grasses. According to reports, the University of Minnesota’s Office for Technology Commercialization, has applied for a patent on the renewable rubber technology and plans to license the technology to companies interested in commercializing it.
The promise is of not only a better-performing synthetic rubber, but also a sustainable one. Bridgestone Corporation has announced its successful creation of a new synthetic isoprene rubber (IR), something it achieved through precise molecular structure control utilising a new polymerisation catalyst. The company believes the new IR can deliver durability and fuel-efficiency performance surpassing that of natural rubber, and as it can be created using isoprene derived from renewable biomass, it offers the potential to be a sustainable material. Bridgestone aims to achieve the practical application of IR during the 2020s.
Versalis, a European producer in the polymers and elastomers industry, and bioengineering firm Genomatica’s joint venture project to create renewable butadiene has been presented with Tire Technology International’s Environmental Achievement of the Year award. The companies embarked on the long-term project to address concerns around potential butadiene shortages and price increases. In a demonstration run in 2016, several kilograms of renewable butadiene were prepared starting from commercial sugars, with polymerisation tests showing no differences between the polybutadiene prepared from fossil or renewable feedstock.
Reliance Sibur Elastomers Private Limited (RSEPL), a joint venture between Russian gas and petrochemicals company Sibur and India’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), has announced plans to establish southern Asia’s first halogenated butyl rubber unit at RIL’s integrated petrochemical facility in Jamnagar, India. Halogenated butyl is a key ingredient in the manufacture of tubless tyre inner liners.
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.
Russia’s PJSC Tatneft has entered into an agreement to sell its shares in chemical and synthetic rubber manufacturer PJSC Nizhnekamskneftekhim to the Taif group of companies. The transaction, which will see 402,813,999 ordinary shares, is valued at approximately 32 billion roubles (£422.6 million).
Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical and Zeon Corporation are setting up a joint venture company to facilitate the integration of both firms’ solution styrene butadiene rubber (S-SBR) businesses. The resulting company will be called ZS Elastomer Co. Ltd. (ZSE) and will be 60 per cent owned by Zeon Corporation, with Sumitomo Corporation holding the remainin 40 per cent share. Sumitomo Chemical and Zeon will each succeed the rights and obligations of the sales and R&D functions their respective S-SBR business to ZSE.
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.
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