2015-05-20

LANXESS’ inorganic pigments: more colorful than nature

LANXESS at Chinaplas 2015</br> May 20-23, Booth Number: J45, Hall 11.2</br> China Import & Export Fair Complex, Guangzhou

Shanghai – Specialty chemicals company LANXESS, one of the world’s leading producers of iron oxide and chromium oxide pigments, is showcasing its high-performance and colorful solutions for the plastics industry at the Chinaplas 2015 in Guangzhou, China, from May 20 to 23.

LANXESS will present a wide color range for different plastics applications including yellow, black, green and brown iron oxide pigments marketed under the brands Bayferrox® and Colortherm®. A highlight will be the introduction of LANXESS’ New Red product range of bright yellowish Bayferrox® red pigments with particularly high chromaticity. These red pigments will be marketed globally under the trusted Bayferrox® brand name. The  New Red pigments range will be available from 2016 onwards from the new production plant in Ningbo, China.

“While China is enforcing stricter environmental regulations, the iron oxide industry is undergoing a market consolidation. LANXESS, as the reliable iron oxide pigments provider, is ready to provide China’s plastics industry with high quality and sustainably produced products”, says Rafael Suchan, Vice President of the Inorganic Pigments business unit in Asia Pacific. “With our New Red pigments from our new plant in Ningbo we will further strengthen our leading position in the Chinese as well as the global market.”

New Red Iron Oxide Pigments produced with optimized Penniman processes
LANXESS is building a high-tech production facility in Ningbo for the production of iron oxide red pigments using an optimized state-of-the-art Penniman Red production process. The new plant is designed for an initial annual synthesis capacity of 25,000 metric tons and meets the latest environmental standards. At the same site, LANXESS is also constructing a mixing and milling facility for inorganic pigments with an annual capacity of 70,000 metric tons.

“Compared to all currently available red iron oxide pigments, the innovative and sustainable Penniman process developed by LANXESS enables the production of very bright yellowish red pigments not available in the market yet,” says Rafael Suchan. Significantly higher color values on the red axis (a*) in the L*a*b* color space are achieved, and the same is true for the color development on the yellow axis (b*). No other iron oxide production process provides the option of such a flexible and precise production of color shades.
In the new plant located in the Ningbo Chemical Park, the company will for the first time employ its optimized Penniman Red process in which improved water treatment and waste gas purification ensure a high level of environmental compatibility. Optimizations in the production process will also significantly reduce the quantities of nitrogen oxides generated. Emissions of the greenhouse gas N2O (nitrous oxide) will almost completely be converted by an efficient after-treatment into nitrogen, water and oxygen – all naturally occurring substances.

Special Pigments for the Coloring of Plastics
China is the world’s single largest plastics manufacturing and consuming market. LANXESS offers a broad range of inorganic color pigments satisfying highest requirements in plastic applications.

Artificial turf needs the proper coloration if it is to be virtually indistinguishable in appearance from its natural counterpart. Colortherm® pigments often serve as coloring components for artificial turf. In particular, Colortherm® Yellow 20 and Colortherm® Yellow 30 are widely used for the coloration and UV protection of artificial turf fibers, in combination with an organic blue pigment. Colortherm® iron oxide pigments are not only cost-effective, they are also very lightfast and resistant to weathering, with no decrease in color intensity over the life of the turf. All products feature a high thermal stability and can be heated to temperatures up to 260°C. What’s more, they suffer no adverse effects during the extrusion of the colored polypropylene fibers.

Colortherm® inorganic pigments also have been proven effective in coloring wood plastic composites and provide more color choices for these composites such as Colortherm® black 318, Colortherm® red 110M and Colortherm® Green GN-M These products exhibit good dispersibility, even in processes which have short dwell times and relatively low shear forces. They are easy to break down and distribute to reach its final tinting strength quickly. Other advantages include their lightfastness and weather-resistance.

In addition, Bayferrox® 360, a bluish iron oxide black pigment with very high tinting strength, can be used for wood plastic composites. The product belongs to the product range of High Performance Special Pigments and fulfills the higher requirements necessary in the plastic industry.

LANXESS' Inorganic Pigments business unit is the world's largest manufacturer of iron oxides and a leading producer of inorganic pigments based on chromium oxides. IPG has sites in Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany; Porto Feliz, Brazil; Starpointe Burgettstown, United States; Branston, United Kingdom; Vilassar de Mar, Spain; Sydney, Australia; Shanghai and from 2016 in Ningbo, China. The IPG business unit is part of LANXESS’s Performance Chemicals segment, which recorded sales of EUR 2.2 billion in fiscal 2014.

Detailed information can be found on the Internet at www.bayferrox.cn.
LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 8.0 billion in 2014 and about 16,600 employees in 29 countries. The company is currently represented at 52 production sites worldwide.  The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals. LANXESS is a member of the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and DJSI Europe) and FTSE4Good.

Forward-Looking Statements.
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by LANXESS AG management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

Information for editors:
All LANXESS news releases and accompanying photo, video and audio material can be found at www.lanxess.cn, www.weibo.com/lanxess, or LANXESS official WeChat account: LANXESS_china