Group Management Report Corporate Governance Environment, Safety, and Corporate Social Responsibility Consolidated Financial Statements 37 ECKART Effect Pigments ALTANA concentrates the development, production, and sale of effect pigments in the ECKART Effect Pigments division. Customers use these products to achieve visual and functional effects primarily in coatings, plastics, printing inks, cosmetics, and construction materials. The principal raw materials are aluminum, copper, and zinc. Aside from metallic effect pigments, other pigments are offered based on artificial substrates. The division’s portfolio is supplemented by effect printing inks and services. Aluminum-based effect pigments comprise the largest part of ECKART’s business. Customers use them particu- larly to achieve silver metallic effects, for example, for car paints or on graphic-arts products. Aluminum pigments are also used for functional purposes, for example, in the manufacture of aerated concrete. Bronze effect pigments generate golden effects in paints, printing inks, and plastic products. Customers use zinc pigments in special paints to achieve functional properties, particularly for corrosion protection. ECKART GmbH is the division’s operating manage- ment company. It produces a large part of the effect pigments it sells worldwide in southern Germany (Harten- stein and Wackersdorf). Other manufacturing sites are located in the U.S., China, Switzerland, and Finland. The manufacturing process is characterized by a very high degree of value creation. In a number of successive steps, all kinds of pigments are made, refined chemically, and in some cases processed into finished printing inks. The effect pigments are marketed predominantly via the division’s own sales structures, but also by sales part- ners. Like the BYK division, ECKART’s most important customers include international manufacturers of coatings, printing inks, and plastics. Other important customers are manufacturers in the construction industry and the cos- metics sector. ECKART achieves half of its sales in Europe, primarily in its largest individual market, Germany. Its next- largest sales regions are Asia and the Americas, which are equally important. As an important manufacturer of metal effect pigments, ECKART continually pushes forward the development of new product qualities and opens up new fields of application on the basis of sophisticated technological expertise and many years of knowhow. The aim is to steadily expand functional application fields – on the one hand, to tap new growth potential, and on the other to make the division’s activities less dependent on color trends. ELANTAS Electrical Insulation The companies in the ELANTAS Electrical Insulation division offer their customers a high level of expertise in the field of electrical insulation materials. As one of the world’s leading suppliers of such products, the division’s portfolio concentrates on coatings for insulating magnet wires as well as special resins and coatings for impregnating and protecting electrical and electronic components. ELANTAS has its own holding structure under the management of ELANTAS GmbH, based in Wesel. The latter controls the division’s activities and supports its operating sub- sidiaries, which develop and produce insulating materials in Italy, China, the U.S., India, Germany, and Brazil. The division’s products are marketed worldwide. Among its most important customer groups are magnet-wire man- ufacturers, which need materials to insulate wires made of copper or aluminum. The division also supplies insulating resins and coatings directly to manufacturers of electrical and electronic components. ELANTAS’ most important sales region by far is Asia, and particularly China. A high proportion of global manufacture of electrical and electronic components and consumer goods is concentrated in this region. The division has had its own production sites in China and India for years. After China, its most important sales markets are the U.S., India, and Italy.
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