NEWS
Celanese acquires Santoprene; adds to global POM activities
Celanese is to buy the Santoprene thermoplastics vulcanisate (TPV) business from ExxonMobil for $1.15bn. It said it hopes to complete the deal in Q4 of this year. The acquisition includes the Santoprene production units at Pensacola in Florida in the US and Newport in the UK, which together have an annual capacity of 190,000 tonnes. It also includes the Santoprene, Dytron and Geolast trademarks and product portfolios, as well as related IP, customer and supplier contracts, and around 350 staff. “This transaction substan-
tially strengthens our existing elastomers portfo-
Celanese said the deal Santoprene TPV production at Newport in the UK
lio, allowing us to bring a wider range of functional- ised solutions into targeted growth areas including future mobility, medical, and sustainability,” said Tom Kelly, senior vice president Engineered Materials. n In an unrelated move,
Celanese has also acquired certain manufacturing technologies and will take over all of Grupa Azoty’s Tarnoform polyacetal (POM) resin contracts. This follows the Polish company’s decision to discontinue POM activities.
Leistritz delivers ZSE for LFTs
Leistritz has installed a ZSE Maxx twin-screw extruder at the Eppingen, Germany, site of Dieffenbacher, which is currently building a manu- facturing system for volume production of long-fibre thermoplastic direct (LFT-D)
components using up to 100% recycled plastic. According to Leistritz
Regional Sales Manager Frederik Huck, the ZSE Maxx compounder is a key part of this production line as its combination of high torque
and large free volume ensures energy-efficient melt processing and gentle incorporation of the reinforcing fibres. Typical LFT-D processes
The LFT-D plant in build at Eppingen 8 COMPOUNDING WORLD | July 2021
run at a 30-50% fibre content and require two twin-screw extruders. However, this project, for a US customer, calls for a fibre content of 10-20% so compounding can be carried out with one. Leistritz said it worked together with Dieffenbacher to optimise the extruder’s performance data, the screw geometry and the melt discharge in order to meet these requirements. �
www.leistritz.com
presented its Engineered Materials business unit with “an incremental volume opportunity … as well as access to a POM customer base and a proven POM technology.” No employees, tangible assets, manufactur- ing facilities or sales offices will be moving. Grupa Azoty announced its decision to discontinue POM manufacturing in June. It said it had concluded the business “would not be economically viable in the foreseeable future.” The company said POM ac- counted for around 0.5% of its total business in 2020. �
www.celanese.com �
www.grupaazoty.com
Orion and Evonik settle
Carbon black manufacturer Orion Engineered Car- bons has settled arbitration proceedings it began against Evonik in June 2019 relating to the sale of Evonik’s global carbon black business. Evonik has agreed to make a one-off cash payment of €66.55m to resolve all the claims. The action stems from a
partial indemnity Evonik made against various exposures, including some arising in connection with the US Clean Air Act. �
www.orioncarbons.com
www.compoundingworld.com
IMAGE: DIEFFENBACHER
IMAGE: EXXONMOBIL
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