2Additives for Polymers August 2007

NEWS

MATERIALS

Songwon unveils new range of antioxidants and UV absorbers

Korea’s Songwon Industrial Co, Ltd has announced the introduction of a series of

new additive products specifically designed for the polyolefins and compounding markets. The new products are commercially available for immediate shipment and will be showcased at K 2007 in October.

The new products comprise five new antioxidants and two UV absorbers. Songnox 1290 is a new phenolic antioxidant; the company says that by drawing on its expertise in this class of antioxidants it has been able to bring this product to the market particularly quickly. Songnox 6280 is a high-performance, hydrolytically stable phosphite antioxidant, which is a hydrolytically improved version of its existing Songnox 6260 product with hydrotalcite. The hydrotalcite is coated with stearic acid to aid dispersion and, in anticipation of future market requirements, Songwon uses stearic acid derived only from fats of vegetable origin in the new antioxidant, knowing how sensitive the market is to the use of animal-based fats such as tallow. Songnox DSTDP, DLTDP and 4120 are three new thioester-based antioxidants while the final new additions, Songsorb 2908 and 7120, are both benzoate UV absorbers. As a result of these introductions, Songwon says it is now the only company to offer both the benzoates used by the industry as well as the most complete range of thioesters.

According to Jongho Park, chairman and CEO of Songwon Industrial, these launches are only the first step in the completion of the company’s product offer-ing: ‘We expect to be able to announce further additions in the coming months, which will also be featured at K 2007,’ he adds.

Songwon Industrial also recently reported that its new antioxidant manufacturing site in Maeam, Korea, which was completed ahead of schedule at the beginning of April 2007 [ADPO, May 2007], is now in commercial operation. The company invested US$120 million in the design, construction and initial operation of the new plant, which increases its antioxidant production capacity by 20 000 tonnes/year to 55 000 tonnes/year. Songwon is now the number two producer of antioxidants globally.

The new state-of-the-art facility, which is back-integrated into key raw materials and intermediates, is already designed for a further expansion of capacity to a total of 80 000 tonnes once market demand is sufficient.

According to Park, this investment represents a com-mitment to the future needs of customers. Located just a few miles from Songwon’s existing Ulsan plant, the new facility is fully dedicated to polymer stabilizers to ensure that the company will always have at least one plant in operation in case of interruptions, he says. The Maeam plant incorporates the ‘highest level of envi-ronmental stewardship’, exceeding the standards that are already common practice at the Ulsan site as well as in Europe and the USA, Park adds. The plant’s main energy requirements are supplied by the petrochemical complex in Maeam, which is a cooperative effort among companies focusing on energy saving and reduced envi-ronmental impact. In addition, waste recycling contrib-utes to the new plant’s total energy requirements and steps have been taken to limit waste disposal.

Both the successful start-up of the new plant and the expansion of the product offering are stages in Songwon’s planned implementation of its new strategic approach to the market, as announced last September when Songwon and Clariant ended their mutual coop-eration on antioxidants [ADPO, November 2006]. According to Park, the company wants to ensure that its customers ‘not only can rely on Songwon as a major producer of essential antioxidants, but also that they have in Songwon a partner able to respond to all their needs and requests for products’.

Contact: Songwon Industrial Co, Ltd, 737-2 Yochon-dong, Nam-Gu, Ulsan 680090, Korea. Tel: +82 522 739 841, Fax: +82 522 723 528, Web: www.songwonind.com

HallStar introduces new polymer additives

Chicago-based HallStar Company, formerly known as CPH Holding [ADPO, July 2007],

recently introduced several new polymer additives for industrial applications. The new products include low-polarity polymer modifier LPPM RX-13804 and the Paraplex® LS light-stabilizing system.