Lanxess to sell fluoro-elastomers from Russia

ERJ staff report (DS)

Moscow, Russia -- Lanxess AG is to become a distributor for Russian fluoro-elastomer manufacturers, Halopolymer. Maxim V. Doroshkevich, CEO of Halopolymer, and Guenther Weymans, head of the Technical Rubber Products business unit at LANXESS, met at the Moscow office of the local subsidiary OOO Lanxess to sign a contract on the global distribution of these special-purpose elastomers.

“The cooperation with Halopolymer combines the potential of two highly-specialised rubber manufacturers,” said Werner Breuers, member of the Lanxess AG Board of Management. “The innovative spirit that is deeply ingrained in Russian culture is perfect for Lanxess and ties in nicely with our goal of establishing successful, long-term business relationships in this market.” It was only in March this year that the Group opened its new independent sales company OOO Lanxess in Moscow.

Fluororubbers have a global market volume of more than 20,000 metric tons/year. By entering into this agreement, Lanxessenters for the first time the market of fluororubbers. In the medium term, Lanxess plans to market a considerable proportion of this under the name Levatherm F. In addition to the existing Lanxess sales network, a team of experts specialising in marketing and technical service has been put in place. Halopolymer will serve the Russian market as in the past.

“Halopolymer is one of the biggest fluoropolymers producers in the world," said Maxim V. Doroshkevich, CEO of Halopolymer. “We produce about 13,000 metric tons of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) per year. It is a global strategy of Halopolymer to diversify our fluoropolymers business from the production of PTFE as a commodity to specialised products - melt-processable fluoropolymers and fluorinated rubbers - to gain about 10 percent of the global market. The cooperation with Lanxess is of great benefit to our company, helping us to promote our new products on the market and providing us with a very good partner in the field of technical rubbers.”

While few would classify PTFE as a fluoro-elastomer, the agreement opens the path for Lanxess to cooperate with Halopolymer to make alternatives to the best-known fluoro-elastomers, such as Viton from DuPont and Tecnoflon from Solvay Solexis

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Press release from Lanxess