Arlanxeo will invest a mid double-digit million EUR amount to modernize its production sites for synthetic rubber in Triunfo, Brazil and La Wantzenau, France, over the next three years.

As measured by the global turnover, butadiene rubber (BR) is the second most important rubber after styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR). According to the most recent study by the market research institute Ceresana, worldwide consumption for this elastomer type amounts to about 3.44 million tonnes per year. The region Asia-Pacific accounted for over 57 % of global revenues, followed at a large distance by North America and Western Europe. Ceresana expects the revenues generated with BR to increase by, on average, 4.1 % per year until 2025.

Covestro plans to build its own chlorine production plant in Tarragona, Spain. With the so-called oxygen depolarized cathode (ODC) technology, a sustainable manufacturing process is to be used. In Tarragona, the company is building the first industrial-scale plant based solely on this technology. According to the company, Covestro is currently investing around EUR 200 million at Tarragona in order to increase the competitiveness of the location.

To localize elastomer mixing capabilities and support continued growth in Mexico, Cooper Standard recently celebrated the groundbreaking of its new 100,000 square-foot mixing facility in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

BASF is investigating the possibility of building a highly-integrated “Verbund” chemical production site in the South Chinese province of Guangdong. Today, Martin Brudermüller, BASF’s Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, and Lin Shaochun, Executive Vice Governor of Guangdong Province, signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding in Berlin, in the presence of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Wolfram Diener, 54, currently active as Senior Vice President at UBM Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong, will become the new operative managing director of Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, effective from 1 October 2018. He succeeds Joachim Schäfer, 64, who will retire from the company at the end of August 2018.

Arburg will invest a high double-digit million euro sum in the construction of a new 18,000 m2 assembly hall in Lossburg, Germany. According to the mechanical engineering company, the new Assembly Hall 23 will be opened due to the continuing good economic situation and will significantly expand production capacities at the parent company’s site for the next few years.

Martin Forrest, Smithers Rapra, Shawbury, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK, 2018, 438 p., softcover, EUR 150.00, ISBN 978-1-91108-840-0

Goodyear has announced a new natural rubber procurement policy, supporting the responsible sourcing of raw materials. The policy is effective immediately and covers the entire supply chain, including smallholders, industrial plantations, intermediate dealers/consolidators, processors, trading companies, and the company itself.

Alfred Stern, currently Executive Vice President (EVP), was appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Borealis, effective from 2 July 2018. In his position as EVP, Stern is currently responsible for the Polyolefins business and Innovation.