Tech

Stretching innovations

By Qing Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-06 14:36

During China Rubber Days in Macao in June, Lanxess AG presented a large exhibition of the different applications for synthetic rubber. The products range from fuel-saving high-performance tires to golf balls with a longer trajectory. Provided to China Daily

Synthetic rubber firm seeks 'green' high technology development

MACAO - The world's leading synthetic rubber producer Lanxess AG has coined the phrase "Driving sustainable growth through high-tech innovation" as a motto for its long-term development.

The Germany company's board management chairman Axel C. Heitmann said that environment-friendly and resource-friendly innovation should be a priority, given customers' needs and the company's social responsibility.

Synthetic rubber is not only the basis material in automotive engineering and tires but also in the fields of energy generation, sports, medicine, and aerospace. It is even common in people's everyday lives. It can be found, for instance, in the simple and fashionable summer accessory worn today on almost every street in the world - the flip-flop.

"Lanxess wants to grow hand-in-hand with its Chinese customers in the booming local market for synthetic rubber, which is expected to grow by 7 to 8 percent per year within the next five years," Heitmann said at the Lanxess China Rubber Days held at the end of June in Macao.

Similar rubber events are to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, between Sept 22 and 24 and in New Delhi, India, on Dec 3.

"China has already established itself as the world's largest automobile and tire producer and is quite rightly demanding the highest levels of innovation. This is exactly what Lanxess products can deliver," he added.

The chairman said green innovation was also one of Lanxess's key developing strategies in China. The special chemistry group invested $16 million to set up a research and development (R&D) center last May in Qingdao, Shandong province, its second largest such facility in the world.

The company is working closely with the Qingdao University of Science and Technology at the center to develop high quality and eco-friendly products, to prepare the commercialization of future inventions and to train staff in advanced technical expertise.

According to Werner Breuers, a member of the board of management at Lanxess AG, the Qingdao center is closely connected with the group's R&D systems around world. Technologies developed by the center are for Chinese, Asian and global operations.

The company has also developed partnerships with the Beijing Research and Design Institute of the Rubber Industry and Shanghai Jiaotong University to undertake similar research.

China is now the world's largest automotive market with unit sales projected to rise by 8 percent to more than 14 million vehicles this year. Lanxess, whose synthetic rubber is a key material in tires, said it expected domestic consumption of tires to grow by more than 10 percent per year through to 2019.

Heitmann said that when considering environmentally friendly innovation, in addition to attaching attention to resource-friendly development, the focus on tires was to increasing safety, durability and efficiency.

"We are now hard at work with tire manufacturers to create tires that will reduce rolling resistance by up to 50 percent in the next few years. This will have a major impact on vehicle energy consumption throughout the world," he said.

"Tires with our high-performance rubber have been proved to be effective in lowering fuel consumption while reducing noise emissions without compromising safety," said Martin Draemer, chief executive officer of Lanxess Greater China.

Lanxess is a supplier not only to international tire makers Michelin and Hankook but also Chinese companies such as Henan-based Aeolus.

In May, Lanxess announced a joint venture to build a new nitrile rubber plant in Nantong, Jiangsu province, with a total investment of 50 million dollars. The plant, expected to start operations in 2012, will have an initial capacity of 30,000 metric tons per year and is going to serve the rapidly growing Chinese market with high-quality grades of the synthetic rubber.

Lanxess's turnover in China was 584 million euros ($732 million) last year, up 15 percent from 2008. The sector's general year-on-year growth was less than 10 percent, according to the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association.

China Daily