- Email: [email protected]
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F O C US pigment activities (minus bismuth vanadate and indanthrone blue) will be integrated into BASF’s Dispersions & Pigments division (formerly known as Acrylics & Dispersions). BASF’s global pigments business will be supervised from headquarters in Basel, the same building on Klybeckstrasse where Ciba’s headquarters used to be. The headquarters of BASF’s new Paper Chemicals division are also located in Basel, with effect from 1 July 2009. BASF’s global centre for technology management will also be located in Basel and there will be a specific research centre within the city, focusing on plastics, paints and paper chemicals. With this comprehensive integration, BASF anticipates generating synergy savings of at least €300 M per year by the end of 2010, widening to €400 M per year onwards from 2012. The restructuring necessary to achieve this integration will cost about €150 M in full-year 2009, with another €400 M to come in subsequent years. The overall workforce will be cut by 3700 people by 2013, with most of this retrenchment being achieved before the end of 2010. Effective 1 June, BASF began a new regime of shorter working hours for 1000 employees at 20 different manufacturing facilities and related service units on its huge Ludwigshafen complex. The facilities affected some of those making pigments, intermediates, petrochemicals and inorganics. At specific facilities, working hours will be reduced by between 20% and 100% for up to four months, ie until the end of September. The affected employees will receive about 90% of their salaries, regardless of how much their working hours have been reduced. Meanwhile, 5200 employees at 19 other sites across Europe were already working on a short-time basis. The measure has been taken to avoid an excessive build-up in inventories, which in turn resulted from lower sales volumes. BASF states: “Normal working hours could be reintroduced at any time should demand for our products rebound.” Press Release from: BASF SE, D-67056 Ludwigshafen, Germany, Tel: +49 (0) 621 600, Website: http://www.basf.com (6 Jul 2009) & Farbe und Lack, Jul 2009, 115 (7), 15 (in German)
JULY 2009
O N
PIGMENTS
Cromex expands in Brazil & foresees 10% increase in masterbatch revenues Cromex (of Sao Paulo), Brazil’s leading producer of plastics masterbatch, anticipates an increase of up to 10% in its sales revenue this year, compared to the Reals 340 M recorded for full-year 2008. The company generates 70% of its revenue from sales to Brazilian customers, with 30% coming from exports to about 40 countries, mainly in Latin America and the Middle East. Thanks to the completion of a Reals 3.5 M expansion last year at its Simoes Filho plant (Bahia province), Cromex now has a total masterbatch capacity of 132,000 tonnes/y. In April 2009, Cromex signed an alliance with Braskem (the Sao Paulobased petrochemicals company) to develop coloured and additive masterbatches for Braskem’s new polyethylene product, based on sugarcane-ethanol. Braskem and Cromex promote the polymer and the masterbatches as environmentfriendly and meeting the criteria for sustainable development from renewable resources. BNAmericas Petrochemicals News, 13 May 2009 (Website: http://www.bnamericas.com)
DIC forecasts drop of 15% in revenue from pigments & inks in 2009/10 DIC claims a 25% global market share in organic pigments and a 30% global market share in printing inks. These two businesses are part of DIC’s Graphic Arts segment, which contributes just over 60% of the group’s revenue. Also contained within this segment are DIC’s businesses in presensitised printing plates and sundry other printing supplies. DIC’s two major subsidiaries in Graphic Arts are: Sun Chemical Inc (of Parsippany, NJ in the US) and Sun Chemical Europe BV (of Weesp, Netherlands). Sun’s operating headquarters for the EU are located at Slough. DIC’s Industrial Materials segment makes and sells synthetic resins, resin-related products, functional polymers and polymer additives. The group’s High Performance & Applied Products segment supply: pressuresensitive adhesive materials, plasticmoulded products; building materials and petrochemicals. The Electronics
& Information Materials segment supply: imaging and reprographic products, liquid crystal materials, engineering plastics and membranes. The group has sales offices in about 60 countries around the world. Its main research centre is at Sakura (Japan) and it also has significant research facilities in Berlin (Germany) and Qingdao (China). Mr Kazuo Sugie became the new President of DIC in April 2009. For the year to end-March 2008, DIC’s consolidated group revenue exceeded Yen 1000 bn for the first time in its 100-year history. Last year, DIC’s sales fell by 13.5% from Yen 1077.9 bn to Yen 932.3 bn. Operating income was only just over half of the previous year’s figure – Yen 25.4 bn, versus Yen 48.4 bn. Post-tax profit dropped to Yen 2.6 bn, from Yen 31.0 bn. Sales of inks fell in Japan, the Americas and Europe, while for the Indian market DIC reported sales as brisk, particularly for newspaper inks and gravure inks. For the current year, to end-March 2010, group operating income is forecast at Yen 15 bn on sales revenues of Yen 770 bn. The group expects to declare a post-tax loss of Yen 6.5 bn for the first half of this year, which will be only partially offset by a forecast profit of Yen 2.5 bn for the second half of the year. For its Graphic Arts segment (consisting mainly of the pigments and inks businesses), DIC is forecasting operating income at Yen 18.3 bn (down 21%) on sales of Yen 506.1 bn (down 15%, compared against last year). Chemical Week, 27 Apr 2009, 171 (11), 27 & Press Release from: DIC, Tokyo, Japan, Website: http://www.dic.co.jp (12 May 2009)
DIC: Financial Results, Year to end-March 2009 (Yen bn)
Total Graphic arts - Japan - Americas & Europe - Asia & Oceania Industrial materials High performance & Applied products Electronic materials Other activities Inter-group trading
Sales Income* 32.3 25.4 574.6 25.6 108.2 0.8 413.3 22.0 69.0 3.6 173.2 5.1 124.1 44.3 32.8 -16.6
2.0 1.5 -2.3 -6.5
* Operating income, after deducting cost of sales and selling, general & admin expenses
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JULY 2009
O N
PIGMENTS
Cromex expands in Brazil & foresees 10% increase in masterbatch revenues Cromex (of Sao Paulo), Brazil’s leading producer of plastics masterbatch, anticipates an increase of up to 10% in its sales revenue this year, compared to the Reals 340 M recorded for full-year 2008. The company generates 70% of its revenue from sales to Brazilian customers, with 30% coming from exports to about 40 countries, mainly in Latin America and the Middle East. Thanks to the completion of a Reals 3.5 M expansion last year at its Simoes Filho plant (Bahia province), Cromex now has a total masterbatch capacity of 132,000 tonnes/y. In April 2009, Cromex signed an alliance with Braskem (the Sao Paulobased petrochemicals company) to develop coloured and additive masterbatches for Braskem’s new polyethylene product, based on sugarcane-ethanol. Braskem and Cromex promote the polymer and the masterbatches as environmentfriendly and meeting the criteria for sustainable development from renewable resources. BNAmericas Petrochemicals News, 13 May 2009 (Website: http://www.bnamericas.com)
DIC forecasts drop of 15% in revenue from pigments & inks in 2009/10 DIC claims a 25% global market share in organic pigments and a 30% global market share in printing inks. These two businesses are part of DIC’s Graphic Arts segment, which contributes just over 60% of the group’s revenue. Also contained within this segment are DIC’s businesses in presensitised printing plates and sundry other printing supplies. DIC’s two major subsidiaries in Graphic Arts are: Sun Chemical Inc (of Parsippany, NJ in the US) and Sun Chemical Europe BV (of Weesp, Netherlands). Sun’s operating headquarters for the EU are located at Slough. DIC’s Industrial Materials segment makes and sells synthetic resins, resin-related products, functional polymers and polymer additives. The group’s High Performance & Applied Products segment supply: pressuresensitive adhesive materials, plasticmoulded products; building materials and petrochemicals. The Electronics
& Information Materials segment supply: imaging and reprographic products, liquid crystal materials, engineering plastics and membranes. The group has sales offices in about 60 countries around the world. Its main research centre is at Sakura (Japan) and it also has significant research facilities in Berlin (Germany) and Qingdao (China). Mr Kazuo Sugie became the new President of DIC in April 2009. For the year to end-March 2008, DIC’s consolidated group revenue exceeded Yen 1000 bn for the first time in its 100-year history. Last year, DIC’s sales fell by 13.5% from Yen 1077.9 bn to Yen 932.3 bn. Operating income was only just over half of the previous year’s figure – Yen 25.4 bn, versus Yen 48.4 bn. Post-tax profit dropped to Yen 2.6 bn, from Yen 31.0 bn. Sales of inks fell in Japan, the Americas and Europe, while for the Indian market DIC reported sales as brisk, particularly for newspaper inks and gravure inks. For the current year, to end-March 2010, group operating income is forecast at Yen 15 bn on sales revenues of Yen 770 bn. The group expects to declare a post-tax loss of Yen 6.5 bn for the first half of this year, which will be only partially offset by a forecast profit of Yen 2.5 bn for the second half of the year. For its Graphic Arts segment (consisting mainly of the pigments and inks businesses), DIC is forecasting operating income at Yen 18.3 bn (down 21%) on sales of Yen 506.1 bn (down 15%, compared against last year). Chemical Week, 27 Apr 2009, 171 (11), 27 & Press Release from: DIC, Tokyo, Japan, Website: http://www.dic.co.jp (12 May 2009)
DIC: Financial Results, Year to end-March 2009 (Yen bn)
Total Graphic arts - Japan - Americas & Europe - Asia & Oceania Industrial materials High performance & Applied products Electronic materials Other activities Inter-group trading
Sales Income* 32.3 25.4 574.6 25.6 108.2 0.8 413.3 22.0 69.0 3.6 173.2 5.1 124.1 44.3 32.8 -16.6
2.0 1.5 -2.3 -6.5
* Operating income, after deducting cost of sales and selling, general & admin expenses
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