Rubber Day Germany Wednesday, September 21, 2011 LANXESS AG Contact: Udo Erbstößer Market Communications Trade and Technical Press 51369 Leverkusen Germany Phone: +49 214 30-54529 Fax: +49 214 30-44865 udo.erbstoesser@lanxess.com Speech by Luis López-Remón Head of Rubber Chemicals, LANXESS AG (Please check against delivery) (2011-00016e)
Page 2 of 10 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I, too, would like to wish you a warm welcome to Düsseldorf. And welcome to LANXESS Rubber Day 2011! You've already heard it many times today future mobility needs to become more sustainable! And you've also heard that LANXESS is playing a key role in this with its high-performance rubbers. But that s not all LANXESS can, of course, do even more! When it comes to green tires in particular, LANXESS also offers innovative solutions in other areas, too. This is because premium products, high-tech and innovative strength apply not only to LANXESS high-performance rubbers but to the whole area of rubber chemicals.
Page 3 of 10 The Rubber Chemicals business unit offers these rubber chemicals, harnessing new ideas in its role as global leader and, first and foremost, using the close ties with our customers to tailor these innovative products both, to the needs of the market and to our highperformance rubbers Buna CB and Buna VSL, that is Nd-PBR and S- SBR. A large proportion of all rubber chemicals have been on the market for decades. And there's good reason for this. First, the products have proved themselves. Second, in many cases, there continue to be no alternatives. And third and perhaps most importantly till now, rubber and tire manufacturers have always gotten along well with these products, as they've been able to use established and tried-and-tested chemicals to prevent risks to the end product and thus to their customers. But for some time there's been movement on the market. The circumstances are changing. Currently one of the biggest challenges for tire manufacturers is to satisfy the increased environmental requirements resulting from the
new EU directive on tire labeling that will be in force from the end of 2012 onwards. Page 4 of 10 In the future, tires will have to help save fuel to an even greater extent. They will need to become even quieter, and wet grip will also have to be improved. Meeting these increased requirements and in a comparatively short time, too is no easy task for tire manufacturers. This is where LANXESS offers high-performance rubbers, rubber chemicals and technical support. The Rubber Chemicals business unit at LANXESS is an expert partner for customers throughout the world. We operate around the globe in Europe, Asia, Africa and America and have around 600 employees at a total of eight sites. As one of very few suppliers on the market, we've invested continuously in research and development over the years and this has enabled us to regularly launch new solutions for industry.
While other companies only develop and modify new solutions and products from EXISTING products, we are the only rubber chemical manufacturer that also develops new products. Page 5 of 10 In the next few weeks and months, we'll once again be launching new products on the market for which patents have already been submitted and registered. Our prime goal here is that customers should not have to change their product formulations and processes. Another factor is that we involve our customers in product development at a very early stage and subsequently also provide them with global on-site support in the launch phase through our dedicated technical service team. And to reiterate my point, our competitors do not offer this comprehensive service. In developing new products, we pursue two approaches at Rubber Chemicals: First, we offer new applications that result from developing existing products. Second, our chemists have developed totally new, innovative products and solutions.
Page 6 of 10 The first group includes the new silica additive 9202, a solution that improves the vulcanization process and stiffness. What's more, there is no need to add the heavy metal zinc a clear gain for the environment. Vulcuren is a further product from our business unit. This hybrid crosslinker is primarily used as an anti-reversion agent to stabilize the network in the event of high stress levels. Vulcuren can make a substantial contribution to cutting rolling resistance in car tires. This is a new area of application for this material.
And this is another instance of where we aim to avoid our customers having to change their formulations, as Vulcuren exhibits excellent compatibility with other components. Page 7 of 10 The second group of new developments includes products we've developed under the Vulkalink name to further optimize the rolling resistance of state-of-the-art tire tread mixes. These are brand new additives that significantly improve the interaction between polymers and silica filler. Vulkalink products have been developed in close cooperation with our global customers and can be added very easily to the vulcanization process without creating incompatibility with other ingredients. Ultimately, Vulkalink products improve rolling resistance and the wet grip behavior of tires and enable our customers to fulfill the provisions of the EU directive more easily and more quickly.
Page 8 of 10 The second group of Vulkalink products includes Vulkalink 1871, an additive that has very similar properties and was also developed in close collaboration with our global customers. One of the biggest benefits of this product is that manufacturers can cut the amount of filler without the production process having to be changed and without having a negative impact on the hardness of the rubber blend. The rolling resistance of car tires can also be improved significantly thanks to the lower dose of silica.
Page 9 of 10 As you can see, we offer the solutions that will be increasingly crucial in the future. These are solutions that enable you as tire manufacturers or as manufacturers of technical rubber products to achieve your goals even more effectively. Our aim is for your formulations and manufacturing processes to remain unchanged as far as possible. Our tailored high-performance rubbers and additives as well as our technical service support this objective. And these are solutions that help us all make a big step forward in shaping future mobility to make it first and foremost more sustainable. Thank you for your attention.
Forward-Looking Statements. This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by LANXESS AG management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments. Page 10 of 10