Having received the necessary approvals from anti-trust authorities, speciality chemicals group Lanxess has completed the acquisition of DSM Elastomers. Lanxess is paying EUR310 million for the elastomer business of the Dutch company DSM that produces EPDM under the brand name Keltan. DSM Elastomers operates a 160,000-tonnes/year EPDM facility in Sittard-Geleen, the Netherlands,and a 40,000-tonnes/year facility in Triunfo, Brazil.
Lanxess plans to transfer the headquarters for the combined EPDM business from Marl (Germany) to Sittard-Geleen.
The Technical Rubber Products (TRP) business unit of Lanxess will sell its EPDM products under the brand names Buna EP and Keltan. It currently produces EPDM at its sites in Germany and the US.
Meanwhile, the TRP unit is investing EUR17 million to expand capacity of its polychloroprene solid rubber, which is sold as Baypren, at the Dormagen site in Germany. It is scheduled for completion by the end of 2012 and will increase production by 10% to 63,000 tonnes/year.
The polymer is used to produce cable sheathing, hoses, belts, seals and air springs. The demand for this type of rubber is currently growing globally at an annual rate of 3%. The company also announced recent increases in SSBR and neodymium polybutadiene rubber (Nd-PBR) capacities in the US. It is also expanding its
Nd-PBR production at the Dormagen site and at Cabo in Brazil.