The joint venture will work on brominated carbonate oligomer flame retardants

Polymer additives major Great Lakes Chemical is to set up a joint venture with Japan’s Teijin Chemicals in brominated carbonate oligomer flame retardants for engineering polymers, including polycarbonate and PBT.

The group announced at K that both companies will contribute their activities in the field to the as yet unnamed venture, which will be headquartered in Japan.

The new concern will combine Great Lakes’s plant in the US with Teijin’s Japanese unit, but the intention is to focus on one unit and find another role for the other, Great Lakes chief executive Mark Bulriss said in Dьsseldorf.

Great Lakes has cut back its flame retardant production sites from 12 in 2000 to just five today. Bulriss put revenues for the new joint venture in the region of $30m to $40m (E23m to E31m).

Earlier this year, Great Lakes announced plans to combine its activities in antimony oxide flame retardants with Occidental Petroleums Laurel Industries’ unit. This has now been completed with the transfer of Fireshield and Thermoguard flame retardants from LaPorte, in Texas, to the facility in Reynosa, Mexico.