CHENNAI: Rhein Chemie Rheinau of Germany, launched production of polymer-bound rubber chemicals (Rhenogran) in India. The new plant will be inaugurated at the production site of the Lanxess parent company on Friday in Madurai, according to Anno Borkowsky, Chief Executive Officer and President of the company.

Addressing a press conference here recently, Mr. Borkowsky said the new plant was a joint venture between Rhein Chemie and Lanxess India.

This would be the second Rhenogran plant to be commissioned in Asia in the space of just one year. In March 2006, the company doubled the production capacity for Rhenogran in its Chinese joint venture Rhein Chemie (Qingdao) Ltd.

Country Representative and Managing Director, Lanxess India Pvt. Ltd., Joerg Strassburger, said the company had already been manufacturing water-based release agents for the tyre industry (Rhenodiv) in Madurai.

He said high import costs for finished release agents, coupled with the dynamic development of the rubber industry and in particular the tyre industry in India, provided the rationale to produce water-based tyre solutions locally in Madurai.

Earlier, tyre producers in India predominantly used solvent-based release agents that were produced in their own plants. The increasing use of radial tyres, coupled with environmental considerations, however, drove tyre producers to seek ways of replacing solvent-based release agents with water-based alternatives, he added.

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