COMPANIESCabot appoints UTS to sellmasterbatches in Russia & Ukraine

Cabot Corp has appointed UnitedTrading Systems (UTS) as its maindistributor for selling plasticsmasterbatches to the Russian andUkrainian markets. UTS wasestablished in 2004, it now representsmore than 100 suppliers of variouschemical products and its annualturnover last year was around $100M. The company has a distributioncentre in St Petersburg and specialistwarehouses in Moscow, Ekaterinburg,Novosibirsk and Kiev.

Plastics Additives and Compounding, May/Jun 2007,9 (3), 9

CVRD to divest its shareholdings inBrazilian kaolin companies?

Cia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) isconsidering divesting its majorityshareholdings in the two leadingBrazilian kaolin producers – Cadamand Para Pigmentos. CVRD has an82% stake in Para Pigmentos(formerly Rio Capim Quimica), whileMitsubishi (of Japan) has a 14% stakeand the International Finance Corp(IFC) has a 4% stake. CVRD has a61% stake in Cadam, while Banco doBrasil has a 22% stake and theBNDES development bank has a 17%stake. The combined kaolin output ofCadam and Para Pigmentos reacheda new record high of 1.4 M tonnes in2006, up 11.1% on the 2005 figure.

Industrial Minerals, Aug 2007, 8

Elementis, a leading supplier of Cr2O3green & other chrome chemicals

Elementis Chromium will remainwithin the Elementis group after thesale of the Pigments business unit toRockwood. For full-year 2006,Elementis Chromium reportedoperating profit at £11.9 M on sales of£116.8 M, compared against £7.8 Mon £129.4 M in 2005.

Elementis Chromium is one of theworld’s leading suppliers of chromechemicals, with manufacturingoperations at Eaglescliffe, Durham(UK), Castle Hayne, NC and CorpusChristi, TX (in the United States). Atthese sites, Elementis makes:

chromic acid, chromium oxide,ammonium dichromate, potassiumdichromate, sodium dichromate,chrome sulfate and sodium sulfate.The company also has three USplants – at Milwaukee, WI; Amarillo,TX; and Dakota City, NB – forconverting dichromate (from CastleHayne) into chrome sulfate for theleather tanning industry.

Elementis produces the widestrange of pigment-grade chromiumoxides on the market. Compared toother green pigments, chromiumoxide gives excellent lightfastness,durability, stability and performance. Itis also unaffected by acids, alkalisand solvents. Chromium oxide greenfrom Elementis is used in paints,plastics, enamels, concrete and otherbuilding materials where colourstrength is a key factor. It is used inthe ceramics industry, where it can bemixed with metal oxides to producepigments that vary in shade fromblack to yellow. There is a dark greenversion with high infra-red reflectance,specially developed by ElementisChromium for use in camouflagecoatings. Elementis also offers ahydrated product for use in thetoiletries and cosmetics sectors,colouring bar-soaps and eye-shadows.

To promote good communityrelations, Elementis has sponsored theAdmiralty Ecology Site on part of itsland at Eaglescliffe. Developed by agroup of Elementis Chromiumemployees, with help from Tees Forestand other volunteer organisations,Admiralty has become an award-winning conservation area and avaluable local amenity, welcoming morethan 2500 visitors per annum.

Company Profile of Elementis plc, Ash House, FairfieldAvenue, Staines, TW18 4ES, UK, Website:http://www.elementis.com (23 Jul 2007)

Sun appoints Barentz to sell in CentralEurope

Barentz Grondstoffen (of Hoofddorp,Netherlands) has been appointed bySun Chemical as a distributor for itsperformance pigments in the Czech,Slovak and Hungarian markets.Barentz is already a distributor ofSun’s pigments in Belgium and theNetherlands.

PPCJ, Polymers, Paint, Colour Journal, Apr 2007, 197(4511), 6

LITIGATIONSuppliers compensate customers forcarbon black price-fixing

In January 2003, Technical IndustriesInc (a manufacturer of water-basedpigment dispersions, based at PeaceDale, RI) filed a lawsuit with the USDepartment of Justice in January2003, alleging that the majorsuppliers of carbon black wereoperating a cartel to fix prices forcarbon black products. As a result ofcanvassing by lawyers seeking otherconsumers of carbon black withgrievances similar to those ofTechnical Industries Inc, a Federalanti-trust class-action lawsuitdeveloped. The world’s three leadingcarbon black producers and theirvarious subsidiaries were chargedwith “participating in a US-wide andworldwide conspiracy to fix prices ofcarbon black products in order toraise, maintain or stabilise prices atlevels above the levels that theywould otherwise have attained.” Thisbehaviour – if proved – would havebeen in violation of Section 1 of theSherman Anti-Trust Act.

Plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuitalleged that the price-fixing carteloperated between January 1999 andNovember 2002. The cartel ceased inNovember when officers from the USand EU anti-trust authorities carriedout a series of “surprise visits” tovarious offices of Cabot, Degussaand Columbian in the US andEurope. (See ‘Focus on Pigments’,Dec 2002, 2).

In March 2007, Degussaannounced that it had allocated $4 Mto compensate customers who hadpurchased carbon black between1999 and 2002.

In June 2007, Cabot declared thatit had established a $10 M reservefund to settle matters associatedwith litigation over price-fixing forcarbon black. Cabot stoutly deniedany actual liability but stated that itwould be making payments tocustomers in order to avoid furthercosts and prolongation of the legalprocess.

Chemical Week, 20 Jun 2007, (Website:http://www.chemweek.com) & ICIS ChemicalBusiness Americas, 18 Jun 2007, (Website:http://www.icbamericas.com)

6 SEPTEMBER 2007

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