Head of Technical Rubber Products LANXESS

Transcription

1 Rubber Day Germany Wednesday, September 21, 2011 LANXESS AG Contact: Udo Erbstößer Market Communications Trade and Technical Press Leverkusen Germany Phone: Fax: Speech by Dr. Günther Weymans Head of Technical Rubber Products LANXESS (Please check against delivery) ( e)

2 Page 2 of 6 Good morning ladies and gentlemen, LANXESS is setting its sights on the mega-trend of mobility and on sustainability. Automotive manufacturers, suppliers, the tire industry: all are calling for greater environmental compatibility, for the footprint that we leave behind in the world to become "greener". And you know one of the answers: high-performance rubber! It results in tires with lower rolling resistance, which means lower CO2 emissions.

3 Page 3 of 6 Incidentally, "less is more" also is the slogan for our new brand and portfolio strategy. For example, we will be marketing our highperformance rubber EPDM exclusively under the brand name KELTAN as of January 1, The previous name, Buna EP, will be retired. LANXESS now plans to considerably enhance the eco-friendliness of its high-performance rubbers. Shortly, you will be able to purchase EPDM produced on the basis of sugar cane under the LANXESS brand name KELTAN Eco. Ethanol derived from this basic material is dehydrated into ethylene and polymerized to produce EPDM. This world premiere is to be staged at the Triunfo site in Brazil. In November, biobased ethylene will flow directly by pipeline from our partner Braskem to our EPDM plant. We will be converting some of our production operations, to manufacture about 10,000 metric tons of our new biobased rubber annually for the global market. This is our response to an urgent call from you: to increase the eco-friendliness of rubber not only for the automotive industry, but also for applications in the plastics processing industry, for cable producers and for the building industry.

4 Page 4 of 6 KELTAN Eco Contains up to 70 percent ethylene from sugar cane Reduces the carbon footprint Improves the energy balance Takes us one more step towards becoming independent of oil Is absolutely on par with conventional ethylene With KELTAN Eco, you get the high EPDM quality you are accustomed to from our KELTAN line for profiles, hoses and seals, or as an additive for plastics. Each of your final products can go green. Right away from zero to between 15 and 25 percent, depending on how high the percentage of totally natural ethylene from sugar cane in the EPDM grade is, and on the quantity of KELTAN Eco in the final product. It's a solid advantage that can be communicated to the end customers. What's more, it can easily be verified and certified by us: the carbon in KELTAN Eco coming from sugar cane can be traced back, as proven by measuring isotope C14 according to the ASTM D6866 testing standard. And experience in other markets shows that customers are ready and willing to pay a bit more for a green product.

5 Page 5 of 6 KELTAN Eco significantly enlarges the green footprint, as this chart shows. Neither corn, grain nor sugar beet offer such high potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as sugar cane: a 90 percent reduction compared to petroleum. Responsible for this "green potential" is sugar cane's particularly favorable energy balance, and its high productivity of 7,000 liters of ethylene per hectare, as confirmed by figures from the Brazilian association of sugar cane producers (Unica). At the same time, however, a decision in favor of sugar cane does not represent an excessive burden on the Brazilian agricultural industry: less than one percent of the country's total area, and 1.5 percent of the area under cultivation is used to grow sugar cane. Ladies and gentlemen, two years ago we celebrated 100 years of synthetic rubber. It is a thoroughly proven material with a longstanding tradition. But recent developments show that even centenarians have great hidden potential! Either way, the journey into the future of biobased rubber production has just begun.

6 And one thing's for sure: if you want to be part of this journey from the outset, you'll be in the lead with LANXESS. Page 6 of 6 Thank you for your attention! Forward-Looking Statements. This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by LANXESS AG management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.