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consumption, the partners report. The additional capacity at Xingtai increases Cabot’s overall carbon black manufac-turing capacity in China by 25%, solidifying its claimed position as ‘the world’s leading producer of carbon black’.

‘This new facility is a part of our long-term commit-ment to the tyre industry as we seek to meet our custom-ers’ needs across the globe’, says Patrick Prevost, Cabot president and CEO. The use of state-of-the-art technol-ogy in the new Xingtai plant will enable the company to supply high-performance carbon black products to the Chinese and Asia-Pacific markets, he continues. In addi-tion, the investment in process equipment and infrastruc-ture makes it possible to increase energy efficiency and minimize environmental footprint, Prevost says.

According to Dave Miller, president, Reinforcement Materials Segment, global demand for high-performance reinforcing materials continues to grow within the tyre industry. ‘We are continually working to stay ahead of market demands, and the new Xingtai plant will enable us to deliver our most highly reinforcing carbon black prod-ucts while strengthening our position in China’, he says. Commenting for coal chemical group Risun, chairman and president Yang Xuegang says that the new manufac-turing site will be ‘a welcome addition’ to the local econo-my, as it will create new job opportunities for local work-ers, introduce new technology, establish a new sustainable business model, and bring a sophisticated management system. Founded in 1995, Risun achieved revenues of RMB24 billion (c. E2.9 billion) in 2012.

Contact: Cabot Corp, Boston, MA, USA. Tel: +1 617 345 0100,

Web: www.cabot-corp.com

Nubiola triples production capacity for heat-resistant yellow pigment

Barcelona-based pigment firm Nubiola has recently made a significant investment to

triple production capacity for its heat-resistant yellow iron oxide Nubifer Y-7050. The company says the expansion is in response to the excellent acceptance of the pigment by the plastics and coatings industries since its launch two years ago [ADPO, October 2011].

Nubifer Y-7050 was designed to fulfil the need for weath-erable, yellow pigments with high-temperature stability, for plastics and powder, coil and stoving coatings, according to Nubiola. ‘The increasing demand for Nubifer Y-7050 from the plastics and coatings industries proves the high perfor-mance of this product and its cost efficiency in applications submitted to high temperatures’, says global iron oxides product manager Fabiana Requeijo. ‘We have just finalized the expansion of our production lines to reach three times more capacity than originally planned to satisfy increasing market demand’, she reports.

Conventional yellow iron oxides can withstand tem-peratures of 190°C for five minutes whilst Nubiola’s pro-prietary encapsulation technology renders Nubifer Y-7050 stable up to 260°C (5 min), the company claims. The encapsulation consists of a very thin but effective layer composed of only inorganic compounds; this improves the heat fastness of the pigment by preventing water from being released from the hydrated iron oxide form (namely goethite, which is yellow), so that the anhydride iron oxide form (red haematite) is not generated and the yel-low colour remains unchanged, Nubiola explains.

Nubifer Y-7050 is a ‘very versatile pigment’ manufac-tured with a process ‘that guarantees all the positives’ of the inorganic chemistry linked to high-quality iron oxides, claims Requeijo. On one hand, it provides a dull yellow shade that turns into light beige when combined with tita-nium dioxide, which is a very cost-effective way to achieve the latter tones with excellent chemical/weather/heat fast-ness and with the added value of its food contact approved label, according to Nubiola. On the other hand, the pig-ment combines very well with organic blues and greens, to achieve weatherable, ‘natural’ green shades with good opacity, and with organic reds (e.g. PR 254 and PR 170), to dramatically reduce the high cost of coloration of bright red colours without sacrificing shade or high performance.

In other recent news, Nubiola has invested in high-performance analytical capabilities in the shape of a new analytical Agilent 720 ICP-OES (inductively coupled plasma optical emission) spectrometer in its corporate laboratory in Barcelona, where the company’s R&D activity takes place and where the corporate application laboratory is located. A graphite block digestion system and a clean fume hood for sample preparation have also been installed, as well as a vapour generation accessory for hydride-forming systems, to lower detection limits even further in the analysis of arsenic, bismuth, selenium, antimony and mercury.

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STRATEGIES

The Agilent 720 allows ‘exceptionally low detection limit performance’ together with a simultaneous measurement of all elements from parts per billion to percent levels in a sin-gle measurement. Its CCD (charge coupled device) detector is specially designed for speed and accuracy in a wavelength spectrum of 167–785 nm. The equipment therefore combines the flexibility to analyse major constituent levels with precise trace level determinations, which is important for pigments, explains corporate R&D manager Dr Ricard March.

Avoiding reliance on third parties for key analysis is always quicker and usually less costly, March comments. At a time when Nubiola is strengthening control over all raw materials in its group factories, the ICP-OES is ‘the perfect complement’ to the X-ray fluorescence instrument that has been widely used in its laboratories for more than a decade and is still ‘a crucial tool’, he says. According to Nubiola, all the analytical resources available in the cor-porate laboratory allow the company to not only analyse all sorts of raw materials, but also develop new inorganic pigments, give assistance to its corporate and regional applications laboratories and provide high added-value technical support to customers worldwide.

Contact: Nubiola Pigmentos, SL, Barcelona, Spain. Tel: +34 93 343 5750,

Web: www.nubiola.com

Arkema and Watan plan joint Saudi organic peroxides plant

In Saudi Arabia, Arkema has signed an agree-ment with local investment company Watan

Industrial Investment for the construction of a production plant for organic peroxides, which are widely used as polymerization initiators in the thermoplastic industry. The facility, requiring an investment of about US$30 million, will be locat-ed at Al Jubail in Saudi Arabia and will be the first organic peroxide plant in the Middle East region, the partners say.

Production at the new world-scale plant will focus in particular on organic peroxides stored at low temperature, with safe and secure logistics services provided by a local player, the joint venture partners report. Currently these materials are imported from Europe, requiring complex logistics operations. The joint venture will be majority-held by Arkema, which will oversee the operational

management and sales of the site. The plant’s start-up is scheduled for the first quarter of 2015.

According to Arkema, the new facility will be able to supply all petrochemical players in the Middle East and ‘support their strong growth anticipated by 2020 by offering them a secure and flexible local supply service’. With 11 existing organic per-oxide plants, Arkema says that the investment will bolster its ‘leading position’ in this field, as well as advancing its strategy to strengthen its presence in fast-growing countries, where the group aims to achieve 30% of its sales by 2016.

Arkema has operations in more than 40 countries, employs some 14 000 and generates annual revenue of approximately E6.4 billion. For the second quarter of 2013, the company reported sales of E1.63 billion, down 1.7% compared to 2Q 2012 at constant exchange rate and scope of business; vol-umes were up 3.5%. EBITDA decreased by 10.8% to E273 million and adjusted net income by 17.9% to E124 million as a result of an economic environment that was less favour-able than last year, the company says.

The High Performance Materials segment achieved sales of E477 million in 2Q 2013, down from E572 million a year earlier. The divestment of the tin stabilizers business [ADPO, December 2012] accounted for nearly half of the sales decline, with lower prices, changes in product mix and slightly lower volumes also contributing, Arkema reports. EBITDA was E93 million compared to E109 million in 2Q 2012. The Industrial Specialties segment posted sales of E540 million (E566 million in 2Q 2012) and EBITDA of E114 million.

Contact: Arkema, Colombes Cedex, France. Tel: +33 1 4900 8080,

Web: www.arkema.com

Sun Chemical expands pigments business in Latin America

In São Paulo, Brazil, Sun Chemical Performance Pigments has expanded its regional sales and

service team, local warehousing, and lab support for its pigment products dedicated to the plastics, coatings, cosmetics, inks and specialities markets. The company describes the development as an ‘important and critical investment in Brazil and Latin America’.

The DIC group company is increasing its local service people in the region to help customers with technical issues, quality control and commercial development for a wide range