Strategic Purchasing department ensure that dependencies or
supply bottlenecks are avoided wherever possible. All suppliers
are asked to commit themselves to the United Nations
Global Compact principles delineated in the Group’s purchasing
network on ALTANA’s
website. Nearly 500 companies
have complied with this wish.
Guidelines and Their Effects on ALTANA
International guidelines and national laws determine the
framework
for the Group’s entrepreneurial activities. Both at
the Group level and the level of the individual companies,
ALTANA swiftly implements any changes relevant for the company.
In 2016, the EU REACH Regulation for chemical
substances was still the focus of attention. All ALTANA companies
continued to push ahead preparations for the third
registration phase in 2018.
We assume that BYK will have some 50 additives registered
as raw materials within the framework of individual
registrations. ECKART and ELANTAS will apply for so-called
joint registrations together with partners. Thirty pigments
and 20 insulating materials are affected.
Products That Are Suitable for
Contact with Food
Special guidelines in the U.S., the EU, and Switzerland specify
which materials are permitted for food contact. This also
applies to paints and coatings for packaging materials. For
the first time, ECKART developed highly brilliant silver pigments
for aluminum-based offset printing that comply with
the specifications of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), the EU Directive 10/2011, as well as Swiss specifications.
A big challenge had to be met: On the one hand,
78 Products
this in manifold ways, for example with special additives for
lightweight construction of motor vehicles. Products were
added to this additive family in 2016. Further measures concern
the reduction of harmful volatile organic compounds
(VOCs). ELANTAS made important progress in this area in
2016.
For coatings of motors, generators, and transformers
based on unsaturated polyester resins, at its U.S. site in
St. Louis ELANTAS developed a technology that needs virtually
no styrene or vinyl toluene. As a result, the products’ VOC
emissions will sink from currently more than 20 % to less
than 2 %. In addition, unlike coatings that contain sty-
rene, the new, water-based products have no flashpoint.
That makes their processing significantly safer.
The successful work ELANTAS is doing on solvent-free
powder coatings for wire enamels also constitutes great prog-
ress. The company is developing these coatings as a modification
to the currently used formvar coatings. The powder
coatings produce virtually no emissions and, moreover,
contain no phenols or cresols. This makes coatings processing
safer and reduces health hazards for consumers. Initially,
the powder coatings are to be offered for wires with a diameter
of more than 75 mm.
Our Supplier Network
ALTANA’s companies obtain the raw materials they need to
manufacture products from a group of a total of 4,200 suppliers,
which did not change significantly compared to the
previous year. 1,700 companies supply to a number of
Group sites worldwide.
Of the 2,500 companies that only supply regionally,
55 % come from Europe, 29 % from Asia, 26 % from North
America, and 3 % from South America. With this far-reaching
network, the individual companies
together with ALTANA’s