LANXESS acquires activities from The Dow Chemical Company in South Africa

CISA was established in the mid-1990s and employs some 120 people. Its 2005 sales were equivalent to about EUR 40 million. The plant, which came on stream in 1999, produces 70,000 tons of sodium dichromate per year. This chemical compound is used mainly in the production of tanning materials for leather. CISA's raw materials come from a chromium mine at Rustenburg, South Africa. CISA's main customers are LANXESS's production facility for chrome tanning materials in Merebank, South Africa, and LANXESS's Inorganic Pigments business unit.

At the same time, LANXESS is now divesting all the activities of its Textile Processing Chemicals (TPC) business unit in North America. Star Chem, a specialist in textile and speciality chemicals, will acquire the operations based in the United States and Canada and will employ major parts of the workforces. LANXESS and StarChem have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. Pre-merger notification to government agencies was not required for this transaction, which is expected close by the end of the year. The TPC business unit employs about 380 people worldwide and has sales of EUR 150 million.