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BASF plans to expand business in Europe
December 2005
an interest in Tronox through ownership of Tronox’s Class B common stock. Kerr-McGee expects to distribute those shares to its stockholders through a spin-off or split-off during 2006. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the chemical business is the world’s third-largest producer and marketer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment, with an estimated 13% global market share and annual production capacity of 624 000 tonnes. It has five pigment plants, located in the USA, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands, supplying high-performance products to more than 1100 customers in approximately 100 countries, Kerr-McGee says. In addition, the chemical business produces electrolytic products, including sodium chlorate, electrolytic manganese dioxide, boron trichloride and elemental boron. Explaining the decision, Luke R. Corbett, KerrMcGee chairman and CEO, said that the board believed the total value received through creating a separate public company to be superior to a sale of the chemical business. Both options were considered by the board [see also, ADPO April & August 2005]. “The expertise, quality products and technological and cost advantages of our chemical business, combined with current market conditions, will allow us to create a strong standalone company that will unlock the value of the chemical business,” he added. Following completion of the Tronox separation, Kerr-McGee will become a pure oil and gas exploration and production company. Contact: Kerr-McGee Corp, 123 Robert S. Kerr Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73102, USA; tel: +1405-270-1313; fax: +1-405-270-3029; URL: www.kerr-mcgee.com
Cytec merges divisions into new specialities unit Cytec Industries is to combine its two speciality chemical divisions, Cytec Surface Specialties and Cytec Performance Specialties, into a new unit named Cytec Specialty Chemicals. The new organization will be headquartered in Brussels, Belgium and will be made up of three business units: Radcure and Powder Resins, Liquid Coating Resins and Performance Chemicals, the new home for the company’s polymer additives product lines.
Additives for Polymers
The company has named Shane Fleming, formerly president of Cytec Performance Specialties and a long time Cytec veteran, as president of Cytec Specialty Chemicals. He will relocate to Belgium. According to David Lilley, chairman, president and CEO, the Cytec chemicals businesses face significant challenges caused by weak economic conditions in Europe and North America, and already high raw material input and energy costs exacerbated by the impact of the recent hurricanes in the Gulf Coast of the USA. The new Cytec Specialty Chemicals organization will provide the base for a new level of business process improvements and cost efficiencies in such areas as manufacturing, procurement, supply chain and various other support functions, Lilley continues. In addition, the new organization will enhance product line marketing and research focus at the customer, technology, sales and technical service levels. Contact: Cytec Industries Inc, 5 Garret Mountain Plaza, West Paterson, NJ 07424, USA; tel: +1973-357-3100; fax: +1-973-357-3060; URL: www.cytec.com
BASF plans to expand business in Europe BASF AG has presented its new ‘Europe Strategy 2015’, revealing plans to expand business in its home European market over the next decade. To achieve this, the company says it intends to grow faster than the market, in this way winning market share, cooperating more closely with its customers, and expanding its market position even more systematically in certain countries. According to vice chairman of the board Eggert Voscherau, Europe has contributed more than half of global earnings (EBIT) for BASF’s core chemical businesses for many years. It therefore only made sense for BASF to plan to expand its business in its home market, he explains. “BASF’s roots are in Europe. The majority of BASF’s employees work in this region, and in the future we intend to continue to invest around 1 billion per year here, subject to profitability,” Voscherau says. In the first half of 2005 alone, the company spent close to 0.5 billion on plant and equipment in Europe, 10% more than in 1H 2004.
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Additives for Polymers
December 2005
A focus on enhancing efficiency in all areas will continue to play an important role, says Voscherau. “Efficiency improvements in production, infrastructure and service alone have resulted in long-term savings of 480 million/year in Ludwigshafen. A further 250 million/year in savings comes, for example, from optimizing local structures in Europe.”
US site at Trenton, NJ, is to be closed by the end of 2006, affecting 76 employees, and production transferred to Chardon. The state of Ohio is supporting the relocation with tax breaks and other financial incentives. The Trenton site has been operating below capacity for years and the cost of upgrading it was seen as prohibitive. Warehousing at Trenton is to be retained.
BASF also plans to place a stronger focus on customers, sectors and countries in order to increase its European sales and significantly outperform the market by 2015. “In certain segments we want to make significant gains in market share”, says Dr Walter Seufert, president of BASF in Europe. The company will enhance cooperation with customers to support mutual growth via “joint research projects and product developments through intelligent logistical solutions to environmental issues”, Seufert says. At the same time, BASF intends to bundle its broad expertise more effectively within the company and will focus on offering products and solutions for an entire sector, such as the construction or packaging industry.
Rhein Chemie manufactures a variety of additives and other products for the rubber, lubricants, plastics and polyurethane industries.
Without neglecting its traditionally strong Western European market, BASF also plans to take advantage of the high growth rates and dynamic markets offered by Eastern Europe, and is targeting a doubling of sales in Eastern Europe from 1 billion to 2 billion/year by 2015, says Seufert. BASF says it is already well positioned in the region, with sales organizations established in every Eastern European country several years ago. Contact: BASF AG, Carl-Bosch-Straße 38, D67065 Ludwigshafen, Germany; tel: +49-62160-0; fax: +49-621-60-42525; URL: www.basf.de
Rhein Chemie to consolidate US production in Ohio Chemicals group Lanxess is consolidating the US manufacturing operations of its Mannheim, Germany-based subsidiary Rhein Chemie Rheinau GmbH at the latter’s Chardon, OH, site as part of the group’s second restructuring package. This package [ADPO, November 2005] is designed to save Lanxess some 60 million annually, on a global basis. Rhein Chemie’s other
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Contact: LANXESS, Bld K10, D-51368 Leverkusen, Germany; tel: +49-214-30-1; URL: www.lanxess.com
Price rises across the board for polymer additives The polymer additives sector has been besieged by an on-going flood of price rises in recent months, as indeed has the entire speciality chemicals sector. Price rises across an entire range of products have become almost routine. Soaring raw material and energy costs triggered the rising prices, but the situation has been made worse in many cases by hurricanes Rita and Katrina. As the list of changes is so extensive, a summary is provided here rather than full details, for which interested readers are referred to individual company websites. From 1 November 2005, Akzo Nobel Polymer Chemicals (www.akzonobel.com) has implemented a 5–10% price increase for all products in its Armoslip®, Armid® and Armostat® ranges of slip, anti-blocking and antistatic polymer additives for all customers in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA). The company is also raising prices for organic peroxides, which are used in polymer crosslinking applications among others, by between 8% and 20% in North America and the EMEIA region. Elsewhere, Arkema (www.arkemagroup.com) is increasing by 6–8% the price of its Clearstrength®, Plastistrength® and Durastrength® impact modifiers and processing aids in Europe. Cytec Industries Inc (www.cytec.com) has announced a global price increase of up to 10%
an interest in Tronox through ownership of Tronox’s Class B common stock. Kerr-McGee expects to distribute those shares to its stockholders through a spin-off or split-off during 2006. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the chemical business is the world’s third-largest producer and marketer of titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment, with an estimated 13% global market share and annual production capacity of 624 000 tonnes. It has five pigment plants, located in the USA, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands, supplying high-performance products to more than 1100 customers in approximately 100 countries, Kerr-McGee says. In addition, the chemical business produces electrolytic products, including sodium chlorate, electrolytic manganese dioxide, boron trichloride and elemental boron. Explaining the decision, Luke R. Corbett, KerrMcGee chairman and CEO, said that the board believed the total value received through creating a separate public company to be superior to a sale of the chemical business. Both options were considered by the board [see also, ADPO April & August 2005]. “The expertise, quality products and technological and cost advantages of our chemical business, combined with current market conditions, will allow us to create a strong standalone company that will unlock the value of the chemical business,” he added. Following completion of the Tronox separation, Kerr-McGee will become a pure oil and gas exploration and production company. Contact: Kerr-McGee Corp, 123 Robert S. Kerr Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73102, USA; tel: +1405-270-1313; fax: +1-405-270-3029; URL: www.kerr-mcgee.com
Cytec merges divisions into new specialities unit Cytec Industries is to combine its two speciality chemical divisions, Cytec Surface Specialties and Cytec Performance Specialties, into a new unit named Cytec Specialty Chemicals. The new organization will be headquartered in Brussels, Belgium and will be made up of three business units: Radcure and Powder Resins, Liquid Coating Resins and Performance Chemicals, the new home for the company’s polymer additives product lines.
Additives for Polymers
The company has named Shane Fleming, formerly president of Cytec Performance Specialties and a long time Cytec veteran, as president of Cytec Specialty Chemicals. He will relocate to Belgium. According to David Lilley, chairman, president and CEO, the Cytec chemicals businesses face significant challenges caused by weak economic conditions in Europe and North America, and already high raw material input and energy costs exacerbated by the impact of the recent hurricanes in the Gulf Coast of the USA. The new Cytec Specialty Chemicals organization will provide the base for a new level of business process improvements and cost efficiencies in such areas as manufacturing, procurement, supply chain and various other support functions, Lilley continues. In addition, the new organization will enhance product line marketing and research focus at the customer, technology, sales and technical service levels. Contact: Cytec Industries Inc, 5 Garret Mountain Plaza, West Paterson, NJ 07424, USA; tel: +1973-357-3100; fax: +1-973-357-3060; URL: www.cytec.com
BASF plans to expand business in Europe BASF AG has presented its new ‘Europe Strategy 2015’, revealing plans to expand business in its home European market over the next decade. To achieve this, the company says it intends to grow faster than the market, in this way winning market share, cooperating more closely with its customers, and expanding its market position even more systematically in certain countries. According to vice chairman of the board Eggert Voscherau, Europe has contributed more than half of global earnings (EBIT) for BASF’s core chemical businesses for many years. It therefore only made sense for BASF to plan to expand its business in its home market, he explains. “BASF’s roots are in Europe. The majority of BASF’s employees work in this region, and in the future we intend to continue to invest around 1 billion per year here, subject to profitability,” Voscherau says. In the first half of 2005 alone, the company spent close to 0.5 billion on plant and equipment in Europe, 10% more than in 1H 2004.
5
Additives for Polymers
December 2005
A focus on enhancing efficiency in all areas will continue to play an important role, says Voscherau. “Efficiency improvements in production, infrastructure and service alone have resulted in long-term savings of 480 million/year in Ludwigshafen. A further 250 million/year in savings comes, for example, from optimizing local structures in Europe.”
US site at Trenton, NJ, is to be closed by the end of 2006, affecting 76 employees, and production transferred to Chardon. The state of Ohio is supporting the relocation with tax breaks and other financial incentives. The Trenton site has been operating below capacity for years and the cost of upgrading it was seen as prohibitive. Warehousing at Trenton is to be retained.
BASF also plans to place a stronger focus on customers, sectors and countries in order to increase its European sales and significantly outperform the market by 2015. “In certain segments we want to make significant gains in market share”, says Dr Walter Seufert, president of BASF in Europe. The company will enhance cooperation with customers to support mutual growth via “joint research projects and product developments through intelligent logistical solutions to environmental issues”, Seufert says. At the same time, BASF intends to bundle its broad expertise more effectively within the company and will focus on offering products and solutions for an entire sector, such as the construction or packaging industry.
Rhein Chemie manufactures a variety of additives and other products for the rubber, lubricants, plastics and polyurethane industries.
Without neglecting its traditionally strong Western European market, BASF also plans to take advantage of the high growth rates and dynamic markets offered by Eastern Europe, and is targeting a doubling of sales in Eastern Europe from 1 billion to 2 billion/year by 2015, says Seufert. BASF says it is already well positioned in the region, with sales organizations established in every Eastern European country several years ago. Contact: BASF AG, Carl-Bosch-Straße 38, D67065 Ludwigshafen, Germany; tel: +49-62160-0; fax: +49-621-60-42525; URL: www.basf.de
Rhein Chemie to consolidate US production in Ohio Chemicals group Lanxess is consolidating the US manufacturing operations of its Mannheim, Germany-based subsidiary Rhein Chemie Rheinau GmbH at the latter’s Chardon, OH, site as part of the group’s second restructuring package. This package [ADPO, November 2005] is designed to save Lanxess some 60 million annually, on a global basis. Rhein Chemie’s other
6
Contact: LANXESS, Bld K10, D-51368 Leverkusen, Germany; tel: +49-214-30-1; URL: www.lanxess.com
Price rises across the board for polymer additives The polymer additives sector has been besieged by an on-going flood of price rises in recent months, as indeed has the entire speciality chemicals sector. Price rises across an entire range of products have become almost routine. Soaring raw material and energy costs triggered the rising prices, but the situation has been made worse in many cases by hurricanes Rita and Katrina. As the list of changes is so extensive, a summary is provided here rather than full details, for which interested readers are referred to individual company websites. From 1 November 2005, Akzo Nobel Polymer Chemicals (www.akzonobel.com) has implemented a 5–10% price increase for all products in its Armoslip®, Armid® and Armostat® ranges of slip, anti-blocking and antistatic polymer additives for all customers in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA). The company is also raising prices for organic peroxides, which are used in polymer crosslinking applications among others, by between 8% and 20% in North America and the EMEIA region. Elsewhere, Arkema (www.arkemagroup.com) is increasing by 6–8% the price of its Clearstrength®, Plastistrength® and Durastrength® impact modifiers and processing aids in Europe. Cytec Industries Inc (www.cytec.com) has announced a global price increase of up to 10%