Lanxess aims for 10 percent of FKM market

By David Shaw, ERJ staff

Nuremberg, Germany - Lanxess aims to win up to 10 percent of the global fluoro-elastomer industry within three years. The company made the claim during the IRC event in Nuremberg last week.

Gunther Weymans, head of the company's technical rubber products business unit, told journalists that its 4-year cooperation agreement with Russian company HaloPolymer has plenty of capacity available to produce that volume.

HaloPolymer currently makes only very limited quantities of fluoro-elastomer, but Lanxess hopes to use the Russian polymer production site to make a wide range of new materials using HaloPolymer's unique fluoropolymer chemistry. Weymans said, “we will come up with custom solutions which no-one else can [easily] reproduce.”

He said Lanxess aims to find niches where it is the only supplier of a particular material which adds value in specific applications.

Not least among the options at HaloPolymer is the possibility to add a silicone feed, which would make possible a fluoro-silicone rubber with low viscosity.

Already Lanxess has a team of 10 people who are working on ideas for these and other new materials which can be produced on the HaloPolymer equipment. Weymans said that Lanxess has access to the plant and the technology, so it is not so interested in who owns the physical assets at the plant. Asked if there are any plans to acquire HaloPolymer, he said “there is no hidden agenda.”

Asked if Lanxess has any plans for further deals along the lines of the HaloPolymer agreement, Weymans said, “In general our first priority is to close the property gap that we have available to help our customers.” Asked specifically if there were any such plans in the silicone rubber area, Weymans declined to make any comment.