Arlanxeo – synthetic rubber JV’s Executive Board named
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.
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.
Pirelli intends to supply its tyre factories in the Asia Pacific region with synthetic rubber produced in Russia. The tyre maker has signed a three-party Memorandum of Understanding related to this project. This new MoU facilitates the continuation of plans set out by MoUs signed between Pirelli and Russian petroleum company Rosneft in May and October 2014.
Tyre equipment manufacturer Mesnac has acquired Fushun Yikesi New Material, a Chinese producer of synthetic rubber and resin products, for the sum of US$60 million, according to reports. The acquisition gives the company entry into the rubber raw materials side of the industry.
A new butadiene extraction plant at BASF’s Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium has entered operation, the company reported today. The plant is the second BASF butadiene extraction plant in Europe – the other being its 105,000 tonne per annum Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany – and its 155,000 tonne a year capacity more than doubles the firm’s butadiene production capacity in the region.
Rosneft president and chairman of the management board Igor Sechin has held negotiations with Pirelli’s top management including Marco Tronchetti Provera on the subject of expanding the two companies well reported cooperation.
Chemical producer Lanxess has rolled out a complete rebranding of its butyl rubber products. The brand family now goes under the X Butyl name and all existing product grades have been renamed; Regular Butyl 301, for example, is now called Lanxess X_Butyl RB 301. Bromobutyl 2030 has become Lanxess X_Butyl BB 2030, and Chlorobutyl 1240 has been renamed to Lanxess X_Butyl CB 1240. Lanxess has also launched a new dedicated website, www.butyl.com.
Since spring 2012, Lanxess has run a pilot project involving a more energy and cost efficient butyl rubber production process. The process was tested at two plants at its Zwijndrecht site in Belgium, and built on research and development work it began seven years ago. The specialty chemicals company reports that this pilot project has now been concluded, with successful results. Now that the project is complete, Lanxess says it intends to mothball the plants. It has begun a labour consultation process with unions and employees.
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