Group Management Report Products Safety Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 47
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 (Hartenstein and
Wackersdorf). Other manufacturing sites are located in Swit-
zerland and Finland, as well as in China and the U.S.
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 press-ready printing inks.
The effect pigments are marketed predominantly via the
division’s own sales structures, but also by sales partners.
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 cosmetics 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.
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 func-
tional 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 lead-
ing suppliers of such products, the division’s portfolio con-
centrates 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
subsidiaries, which develop and produce insulating materials
in Germany, Italy, China, India, the U.S., 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 manufac-
ture 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.