Lanxess expansion in India

– Specialty chemicals group Lanxess is to relocate production of rubber chemicals from Thane (Indian state of Maharastra) to Jhagadia in the state of Gujarat. Production will begin in two years at the same time as the launch of the new ion exchange resin plant of the Ion Exchange Resins business unit. From 2010 Lanxess will start supplying the rapidly growing Indian tire market with rubber chemicals from this modern site. Overall, the company is to invest some € 50 million in the new site. In Jhagadia Lanxess will employ around 250 people during the first expansion stage. The head office of Lanxess India Private Limited will remain in Thane. Jhagadia will become the company’s second production site in India after Madurai in southern India (Indian state of Tamil Nadu), and will be the bigger of the two. From here the Ion Exchange Resins business unit will supply products for the generation of ultra-pure water for the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries and for industrial water treatment. The Ion Exchange Resins and Rubber Chemicals business units belong to the Performance Chemicals segment. In the
third quarter of 2007 the segment developed solidly, achieving sales of € 1.514 billion between January and September 2007.