Rough day to be in rubber

IN trading on Thursday, rubber plastics stocks were relative laggards, down on the day by about 0.5%. Helping drag down the group were shares of Fuwei Films Holdings Limited , off about 7.5% and shares of Spartech off about 1.7%…

Silicones balance healthcare needs of patients

Tailor-made solutions Bluestar Silicones has launched a customised approach to the manufacture of antimicrobial silicone products that offers OEMs and processors tailored material solutions to meet specific healthcare application needs. Unlike competitive offerings that are “one size fits all,” Bluestar…

Japanese push for NR in Asia

Japan’s International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will help Vietnam to improve the country’s rubber industry with a plan to replace synthetic rubber, which is made from fossil fuels, with natural rubber (NR). The five-year US$3.9 million project involves the Vietnamese government…

Research for improvements to rubber

Leading universities in the US have innovated technology that allows rubber recovery while a new type of sensor will help in sensing structural damage on infrastructure. University of Akron researcher Avraam Isayev’s rubber recovery technology is expected to cause a…

Lanxess invests into bio-based rubber

GERMAN speciality chemicals company Lanxess is investing more in new technology to produce synthetic rubber from bio-based raw materials. From producing isobutene from renewable resources, it has now increased its minority shareholding in US-based renewable chemical company Gevo. Lanxess initially…

Maine sells pneumatic tyre unit

As part of its global restructuring plan, US-based Maine Industrial Tire has sold its China-based pneumatic tyre manufacturing assets to Trelleborg Wheel Systems. Maine Tire will continue to operate and retain ownership over the solid tyre portion of the Hebei…

PBR technology to Asia

ITALIAN technology and engineering company FasTech has licensed its second proprietary technology to manufacture its Nd-PBR to a leading petrochemical operator in East Asia. The licence agreement includes engineering and other technical services. The first one was to a Middle…