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.
Swiss materials company Trinseo has announced plans for a new Solution-Styrene Butadiene Rubber pilot plant in Schkopau, Germany, for the company’s Synthetic Rubber business. The S-SBR pilot plant will allow for more efficient use of Trinseo’s production facilities and help speed up its innovation in the performance tyre segment. The plant is expected to begin operation in the final quarter of next year.
Russian gas processing and petrochemicals company Sibur has announced that it will merge its Synthetic Rubbers Division and Plastics and Organic Synthesis Division into a single business unit. This will be known as the Plastics, Elastomers and Organic Synthesis Division. Pavel Lyakhovich, managing director of Sibur’s former Plastics and Organic Synthesis Products Division and member of the company’s Management Board, takes charge of the newly-merged division.
The Executive Board for the new Arlanxeo synthetic rubber joint venture has been announced, with parent companies Lanxess and Saudi Aramco gaining equal representation on the four-person Board.
State-owned oil company Saudi Aramco and specialty chemicals company Lanxess report that all pertinent authorities have cleared the joint venture agreement signed by the two parties last September, and as a result their joint synthetic rubber company will come into being on 1 April 2016. The 50/50 joint venture will be known as Arlanxeo.
In addition to showcasing its latest tyre industry developments at next month’s Tire Technology Expo in Hannover, Germany, the Tire and Specialty Rubbers (TSR) business unit of specialty chemicals company Lanxess will deliver two presentations on research into potential ways to further optimise tyre rubber compound.
Groundwork begins this month on a new 60,000 ton per annum S-SBR plant destined to supply synthetic rubber to tyre industry customers. Construction of the new plant begins in the first quarter of next year at the MOL Petrochemicals site in Tiszaújváros, Hungary and the facility is a 51/49 per cent joint venture between Japan’s JSR Corporation and Hungary’s MOL Group. It is expected that the plant’s mechanical completion will take place within 2017.
On 22 October, Pirelli, Rosneft and Synthos signed a further Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the next phase of their synthetic rubber cooperation. The MoU refers to the approval of the results of an initial feasibility study begun in April regarding the development of a synthetic rubber plant construction project in Nakhodka. The document was signed during the Fourth Eurasian Forum in Verona by Rosneft chairman of the management board Igor Sechin, Pirelli executive vice chairman and CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera, and Synthos majority stakeholder Michal Solowow.
Specialty chemicals company Lanxess and Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, today signed an agreement to establish a synthetic rubber joint venture. Lanxess and Aramco Overseas Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, will each hold a 50 per cent stake in the €2.75 billion venture, with Saudi Aramco paying approximately €1.2 billion in cash for its 50 per cent share after deducting debt and other financial liabilities.
The Asian Latex Conference 2015 and India Rubber Summit & Dinner 2015, which were held between 10 – 12 September 2015, were hosted at the Crowne Plaza, Kochi, by Rubber Asia. The awards in recognition of outstanding contributions to different segments of the rubber industry were presented at a ceremony during the India Rubber Summit and Dinner 2015.
Specialty chemicals manufacturer Lanxess states it has initiated a carve-out process to transfer its rubber business to a legally independent business entity within the Lanxess Group. The plan is for the new entity to include the company’s Tire & Specialty Rubbers (TSR) and High Performance Elastomers (HPE) business units, which together operate 20 production facilities and have some 3,700 employees.
PT. Synthetic Rubber Indonesia, a joint venture company owned by Groupe Michelin and PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk, has awarded Toyo Engineering Corporation and PT. Inti Karya Persada Tehnik contracts to set up a 120,000 ton per annum synthetic rubber facility in Cilegon on the western tip of Java, Indonesia. The plant is expected to be ready in 2018 and will produce Michelin-licensed Solution Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SSBR) and Polybutadiene Rubber with Neodymium Catalyst (PBR) for use in tyre production.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
