two shifts. A 2500-litre dissolver wasalso installed at Sittard.

A new laboratory for colorants wasadded at the company’s Concord, NCsite in the United States.Improvements to supply-chainfacilities were made at the Vantaa(Finland) and Shanghai (China)plants.

Pigment pastes currently accountfor about 60% of CPS Color’s annualsales revenue, which is nowapproaching €250 M. CPS Color(headquartered in Vantaa, Finland)was originally established in 1990 asTikkurila CPS, part of the Kemiragroup. It was floated off as a separateentity in 2000, with the equity fundIndustri Kapital effectively supportinga management buy-out. In April 2008,Industri Kapital sold its majority stakein CPS Color to another equity fund,Nordic Capital. CPS Color is the onlycompany in the world offering tintingsystem equipment as well as tintingsystem colorants. The companyemploys more than 900 people and ithas manufacturing sites in Finland,Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Russia,India, China, the US, Brazil andUruguay.

Farbe und Lack, Mar 2011, 117 (3), 13 (Website:http://www.farbeundlack.de) (in German) & Paint andResin Times, Feb 2011, (1), 5 (Website:http://www.completecircmktg.co.uk)

UK: Colloids – masterbatch

Colloids Ltd (a wholly-ownedsubsidiary within the Tosaf group) hassuccessfully negotiated a £1 Mmortgage loan from Barclays Bank inorder to enable it to buy the freeholdownership of its operating site atKnowsley, near Liverpool. Colloidswas established in 1967 and it movedto the Knowsley site in 2001. It is nowone of the UK’s leading producers ofplastics masterbatches and colourconcentrates, exporting about 75% ofits output.

Plastics and Rubber Weekly, 1 Apr 2011, 3 (Website:http://www.prw.com)

US: CMC & St Lawrence University –talc & tremolite

CMC Inc (aka Construction MaterialsCo, of Scottsdale, AZ) has completedits preliminary evaluation of the Segaltalc property in St Lawrence County in

upstate New York, about 200 kmnorth-northeast of Syracuse. Talcreserves here are estimated at around14.8 M tonnes. The Segal property isnot far from the Governeur talcdeposits, which were mined onwardsfrom the mid-1870s until the mid-2000s. These deposits typicallycontain 30-55% talc and 35-60%tremolite. The talc is particularlysuitable for ceramics applications, butcan also be used for paint, cosmetics,plastics, rubber, paper andrefractories.

In 2006/07, the Segal talc propertywas donated to St LawrenceUniversity and the universityauthorities then began looking for amining company to take out a long-term lease on the property. If CMCgoes ahead with development of theproperty, it could be producing80,000-100,000 tonnes/y of talc hereby early 2014.

Industrial Minerals, Mar 2011, (522), 59 (Website:http://www.mineralnet.co.uk)

US: Repi – masterbatch

Repi SpA (headquartered at LonateCeppino, near Milano-Malpensaairport) plans to invest nearly $6 M inthe construction of a new plant atGastonia, NC for the manufacture ofliquid colorants and masterbatches.Since 2003, REPI has had alaboratory and a sales office atCharlotte (30 km east of Gastonia),but it has never previously hadmanufacturing facilities in the US.

Providing that it meets itscommitments on wage andemployment levels, Repi will receive agrant of $75,000 over three yearsfrom the state’s development fund,One North Carolina Fund. Repi willemploy 27 people at the new plant, atan average wage of $41,586 per year.

Plastics News, 17 Mar 2011, (Website:http://www.plasticsnews.com)

COMPANIESAlbion Colours (of Halifax) renamedBrenntag Colours

Albion Colours (of Halifax, WestYorkshire) – a manufacturer anddistributor of dyes, pigments andauxiliary chemicals – has changed its

name to Brenntag Colours. Thecompany traces its origins back toCrystal Chemicals. Following mergerswith Hyperzone, Durham Chemicalsand Hays Chemicals, CrystalChemicals was renamed AlbionChemicals in 2001. Five years later,the Albion Chemicals group wasacquired by Brenntag (the world’slargest chemical distributioncompany) and became Brenntag UK& Ireland, but the Halifax-basedcolorants business retained the nameAlbion Colours.

PPCJ, Polymers, Paint, Colour Journal, Mar 2011, 201(4558), 6 (Website:http://www.polymerspaintcolourjournal.com)

Atul & Dohmen to cross-sell eachother’s colorants

Atul Ltd (of India) and M Dohmen SA(of Switzerland) have established a50:50 joint venture for cross-sellingeach other’s products and forcollaborating on research anddevelopment. Atul (headquartered inVahad, Gujarat province) is part of theLalbhai group. It generates annualsales of $350 M, of which $75 M isaccounted for by cellulosic vat, sulfurand reactive dyes for cotton andpaper. Dohmen (headquartered inSan Vittore) manufactures industrialsynthetic dyes at plants in Germanyand South Korea. It generates annualsales of $75 M from selling dyes andcolorants for paper, wood and plastic.

Mr Manfred Dohmen said: “Theproduct portfolios of our twocompanies complement each otherperfectly. This partnership creates thepotential to capture new markets, aswell as solidifying our competitivenessand joint R & D potential.”

Chemical Weekly, 15 Feb 2011, 130 (Website:http://www.chemicalweekly.com)

BendaLutz appoints South Americandistributors for its metallic pigments

BendaLutz GmbH (of Nussdorf-ob-der-Traisen, Austria) is keen topenetrate the flourishing SouthAmerican markets. It recentlyappointed two distributors in thisregion to promote sales of itsaluminium, bronze, copper and zincpigments. Kemkol SA (of BuenosAires) will cover Argentina, Uruguayand Paraguay, while Kalay do Brasil

6 JUNE 2011

F O C U S O N P I G M E N T S