Nubiola opens sales office in China

Nubiola (headquartered in Barcelona)recently opened a new sales office inChina. This is the company’s fifthoverseas sales office; the others arelocated in Japan, the United States,India, Romania and Colombia.Nubiola is a leading internationalsupplier of ultramarine, chrome oxidegreen and zinc ferrite pigments. 40%of its global sales are to customers inthe plastics industry, with the Spanishmarket accounting for 50% of its salesto this industry.

European Plastics News, Oct 2002, 29 (9), 37

Sides to sell for Pigmentan

Sides SpA (of Milan) has beenappointed to distribute specialitypigments from Pigmentan (of Katzrin,Israel). Sides, with a turnover of €12M, is one of seven independentEuropean distributors belonging to thePluschem alliance. Chimiray (ofFrance) is also a member of thealliance.

European Chemical News, 23 Sep 2002, 77 (2022), 16

Univar Canada acquires Stochem

On 4 Sep 2002, Univar Canada Ltd(formerly known as Vopak Canada)completed its acquisition of Stochem,the specialist distributor of additivesand pigments for the plasticcompounding sector.

Plastics News, 7 Oct 2002 (Website:http://www.plasticsnews.com)

LITIGATIONCSR faces lawsuits relating tooperations at carbon black plants inOklahoma & Texas

Two lawsuits alleging violations ofState and Federal environmental lawshave been filed against ContinentalCarbon and its Taiwanese parentcompany, China Synthetic RubberCorp (CSR), in respect of their carbonblack manufacturing operations atSunray (Texas) and Ponca City(Oklahoma). Both lawsuits were filedby the Paper, Allied Industrial,Chemical & Energy Workers

International trade union (PACE),which originally notified its intention totake legal action at the beginning ofthis year. (See ‘Focus on Pigments’,Feb 2002, 5).

In respect of the Sunray plant inMoore county (Texas), the case wasfiled on 21 Jun. PACE claims thatContinental Carbon failed to obtain ahazardous waste permit, acceptedhazardous waste material without thenecessary authorisations, failed tomake hazardous wastedeterminations, failed to investigatereleases of hazardous wastes, failedto maintain and report the requiredrecords and failed to follow shippingrequirements. In particular, thecompany is alleged to have failed totreat carbon black oil as a hazardousmaterial. The company is alsocharged with failing to monitor thedisposal and removal of sludge fromthe Sunray site, with the result thatlocal aquifers and water-wells may becontaminated.

In respect of the Ponca City plantin Kay county (Western Oklahoma),the case was filed on 23 Jul and thelist of charges is similar to the Texascase.

Moreover, the PACE union isfighting for the cause of 85 workerswho have been “locked out” of thePonca City site since May 2001 forfailing to ratify new wages andemployment terms proposed byContinental Carbon. On 31 May 2002,PACE filed a formal complaint of“unfair labour practices” with the FortWorth regional office of the NationalLabor Relations Board (NLRB).

The hearings of all these casesshould be completed before the endof this year. In the meantime, theSunray and Ponca City plants havecontinued to operate more or less asnormal and there has been nointerruption to deliveries of carbonblack. However, according to PACE,Goodyear has ceased taking carbonblack from Continental Carbon underpressure from its own workforce.Goodyear normally buys 37,500stons/y of carbon black fromContinental Carbon.

Rubber and Plastics News II, 10 Jun 2002, 23 (18), 8& 8 Jul 2002, 23 (20), 1-2 & 5 Aug 2002, 23 (22), 3 &21 Oct 2002, 32 (6), 1,22 & Press releases, 21 Jun2002 & 25 Jun 2002 & 23 Jul 2002 from: PACEInternational Union, 3340 Perimeter Hill Drive,Nashville, TN 37211, USA. Website:http://www.paceunion.org

TECHNOLOGYClariant’s famous red celebrateshundredth birthday

Pigment Red 53:1 is one of the oldestof the organic pigments. The patentgranted in 1902 to Meister Lucius &Bruning (one of the predecessorcompanies of Hoechst AG) referred to“a process for making a mono-azocolorant from o-chloro-m-toluidine-p-sulfonic acid and beta-naphthol that isparticularly suited for themanufacturing of color lakes.”Hoechst (and its predecessors andsuccessors) have been makingPigment Red 53:1 ever since. ThePigments & Additives Division ofClariant took over the manufacture ofPigment Red 53:1 as part of theacquisition of Hoechst’s pigments andmasterbatch businesses in mid-1997.Subsequently, it closed themanufacturing unit at Frankfurt-Hoechst and transferred production toits new plant at Tianjin (China).

Clariant states that worldproduction of Pigment Red 53:1 isnowadays of the order of “severalthousand tonnes annually” and furtherstates that Clariant is the world’slargest producer. For the past 50years, this pigment has beenresponsible for the distinctive redcolour splashed throughout thepopular tabloid newspaper “Bild.” Thepigment is also widely used in theplastics industry.

Although the pigment has a longhistory, research on it has not yetbeen exhausted. The arrangement ofthe molecules in the pigment, forexample, has still not been identified.Moreover, there is still room for furtherdevelopment. Last year, Clariant wasgranted three patents for an orange-coloured variant of the basic PigmentRed 53:1. In addition to commercialproducts which have been successfulfor a long time, such as Graphtol RedLC and LG for plastics, or PermanentLake Red LCLL and LCY for printinginks, Clariant recently introduced anew product – Permanent Lake RedLCYT – which was especiallydeveloped for package printing andgives many products a shiny look.

Press release from: Clariant GmbH, Pigments &Additives Division, Am Unisys-Park 1, D-65843Sulzbach, Germany. Fax: +40 6196 757 8862

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