Lanxess changes distribution policy in Japan and Asia

ERJ staff report (DS)

Mumbai, India -- In a change of policy, Lanxess has teamed up with a Japan-based distributor to serve the Japanese companies in the Asian market with rubber chemicals. The company has teamed up with Tokyo Zairyo Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan), which already handles sales into Japan and elsewhere on behalf of Zeon Corp. and DuPont Performance Elastomers.

Up to now, Lanxess has sold its rubber chemicals in Japan directly to tyre manufacturers and indirectly to customers outside the tyre industry through Kawaguchi Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. acting as the importer and sales agent. Lanxess said it will continue dealing with tyre manufacturers in Japan on a direct-sales basis.

In the rest of Asia, business has been done mainly via local trading companies, but sales to Japanese companies in the region have proved difficult and Lanxess has been looking for ways to break into the market. The solution was a revised marketing strategy for Asia in which the company terminated its sales agreement with Kawaguchi Chemical and formed an alliance with Tokyo Zairyo starting in January 2009.

Tokyo Zairyo is a key supplier of rubber materials and ingredients to Japan's rubber industry and their subsidiaries outside Japan. Tokyo Zairyo also operates a significant rubber compounding activity, which supplies compound to its customers.

Lanxess and Tokyo Zairyo will sell rubber chemicals to Japanese companies with an emphasis on China. In China, the focus will be on using Tokyo Zairyo's four bases (in Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong) to reach Japanese companies in the industrial rubber parts manufacturing sector and boost sales of Lanxess products approved by these companies' parent entities in Japan. Lanxess will offer the Tokyo Zairyo group's rubber compounding company the complete line of Lanxess rubber chemicals.

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Press release from Lanxess