Buying rubber

Leverkusen-based specialty chemicals group Lanxess is to acquire approximately 70 percent interest in Petroflex for around €198m. Rio de Janeiro-based Petroflex is among the world’s large-scale producers of synthetic rubber.

In 2006, Petroflex had some 1,300 employees and sales equivalent to about €500 million. The group’s 2007 output at its three sites in Brazil – Cabo  in Pernambuco State, Duque de Caxias in Rio de Janeiro State and Triunfo in the State of Rio Grande do Sul – will exceed 400,000 tons.

Its elastomer products range from solution rubber to emulsion rubber and comprise 70 brands. The products are used in the manufacture of tyres as well as for tubing and plastics. One third of its output is exported to more than 70 countries.

Petroflex was founded in 1962 as part of Petrobras, a Brazilian chemicals group. In the 1970s, Petroflex became independent and, in the following decade, it extended its international activities to Europe, Asia and North America.