LANXESS looks at China Daily Chemicals: Towards higher-end and safer

From September 15th to 17th, LANXESS, the world's leading specialty chemicals company, held an online brand day event with the theme of "creating value with partners". This time focusing on the Asia-Pacific region, it aims to build a communication platform to display the company's latest products and solutions. LANXESS stated that the high-end trend of China's cosmetics industry is obvious, and it hopes to focus more on consumer protection products in the development process, supply raw materials for personal care products and provide technical support.

Will continue to promote development in China

56 online seminars in English, Chinese and Japanese through 3 days. LANXESS showcases new products, new processes and new technologies, and showcases innovative solutions for multiple industries including new mobility, rubber and plastics, construction, coatings, electrical and electronics, metal processing, water treatment and personal care. The booth adopts interactive 3D display technology to ensure that the audience has an immersive exhibition experience. Through 720-degree panoramic browsing, visitors can obtain detailed information about exhibits and solutions.

Qian Mingcheng, President of LANXESS Asia Pacific, said: “The demand for disinfectants in the market continues to grow this year. Under the epidemic, LANXESS expects to maintain a stable EBITDA rate within its regular business scope, and its full-year target for 2020 No change, the profit before interest, tax, discount and amortization within the regular business scope is 800-900 million euros. The newly established consumer protection business has strong revenue and China leads the recovery of market demand. We will continue to promote the development in China and have formulated many Plan. The effect of this online event is exciting and shows that customers are willing to accept this new format."

Huang Ting, head of the Asia-Pacific region of LANXESS's inorganic pigments business unit, said that the production of the company's European and American factories for this business was basically not affected this year. Chinese factories have a traditional period of production suspension before and after the Spring Festival. When they resume production, they encounter the new crown epidemic and follow the government's scientific epidemic prevention measures to gradually resume production. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and America, the experience of the company's Chinese factories has greatly helped factories in other regions.

Launch a variety of green products

LANXESS is optimistic about the development of the electric vehicle market for a long time, and this time it will showcase a series of new products related to electric vehicles. Including Lewatit ion exchange resin products in the extraction and production of battery-grade nickel and cobalt, and purification of high-purity lithium. The three metals nickel, lithium and cobalt are the key materials for the cathodes of electric vehicle batteries.

The company also showcases and discusses solutions for the construction industry, such as polymeric flame retardants and inorganic pigments produced using environmentally friendly processes.

For example, Hao Mengxuan, technical service manager for the Asia-Pacific region of LANXESS Rhein Chemie, said that in 2019, my country produced about 330 million scrap tires, of which about 290 million scrap car tires were produced, accounting for 88%. Such large scrap tires If the output is not effectively processed, it will bring hidden dangers to ecology and safety, and it is also a huge waste of resources. Therefore, waste tires or rubber products need to be crushed and reused. The traditional regeneration process is more complicated and the environmental pollution is serious. After adopting the company's regenerating agent Rhein Plastic® 79, the regeneration reaction time can be effectively shortened, the regeneration efficiency of waste rubber can be improved, and the emission of harmful substances can be effectively reduced during the regeneration process.

The high-end trend of China's daily chemical market is obvious

Yan Jiming, China Sales Manager of LANXESS Distribution Division, said that in China, personal care products are the largest business of the department, and the company is a supplier of raw materials. Previously, the business was mainly in Europe and the United States. Now consumers in Asia also recognize high-quality raw materials and use them more frequently. Therefore, since 2012, the company has been supplying some European and American Japanese chemical companies' factories in China from Europe, and now there are more and more local customers in China. "Customers in China are growing very fast. At first, our European and American customers accounted for the vast majority of consumption. Later, Chinese local customers also used high-quality raw materials, and their marketing strategies were also very flexible. Now local customers account for about half of the localization strategy. Good customers will be more successful, regardless of whether it is a Chinese company or a foreign company." He said.

According to reports, the raw materials of the Distribution division of LANXESS are mainly produced in Europe. Transport from Europe to China in the first quarter of this year encountered logistics challenges, but it recovered strongly in the second quarter. "We believe that there will be better changes in the third and fourth quarters. We hope to be more localized and adapt to the needs of local customers. Chinese end consumers are turning to high-end products, including cosmetics, skin care, hair care, etc. The entire market is changing The direction of safety and higher-end is going.” Yan Jiming said that Chinese brands have their own social responsibilities and actively choose more environmentally friendly alternatives, which shows that the Chinese cosmetics market is very forward-looking. The trend towards high-end products is very obvious. The impurities in the raw materials of LANXESS are controlled very low, the quality is better and the price is relatively expensive, but the growth will be faster than the same industry. The global network of the LANXESS Distribution department covers the factories where most cosmetic companies are located, and can provide customers with global distribution services and on-site technical consultation.

Good cosmetics require high raw material purity and production technology. In addition to skin beautification effects, people now pay more attention to product safety and health. The products of the LANXESS Distribution department include personal care and flavor and fragrance raw materials, involving preservatives, emollients, solvents, moisturizers, etc. Among them, new fruit acid products that replace traditional preservatives are on the market or are ready to go on the market; PUROLAN® isoparaffin series products have high purity and excellent spreadability, and have very light odor, free of aromatic hydrocarbon impurities, easy to skin absorption and safer . In particular, PUROLAN® isododecane products are regarded as an effective alternative to volatile siloxanes (D4, D5).

LANXESS was spun off from the Bayer Group in 2004, with total sales of 6.802 billion euros in 2019. Its core business includes the development, production and sales of chemical intermediate products, additives, special chemicals and engineering plastics. On January 31, 2005, its shares were listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange for the first time, and LANXESS Chemical (China) Co., Ltd. officially operated, with its Greater China business headquarters in Shanghai. In July this year, LANXESS Asia-Pacific Application Development Center laid the foundation in Shanghai Chemical Industry Park. It is expected to be completed by the end of this year and formally operate in 2021, which will further strengthen its innovation capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region.