Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 47
ECKART
ALTANA concentrates the development, production, and
sale of effect pigments in the ECKART 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 particularly
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 manufac-
ture 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 management
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
Switzerland 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.
ECKART’s most important customers include interna-
tional 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.
ELANTAS
The companies in the ELANTAS 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 man-
agement of ELANTAS GmbH, based in Wesel. The latter
controls the division’s activities and supports its operating
subsidiaries, which develop and produce insulating materi
als in Germany, Italy, China, India, Malaysia, the U.S., and
Brazil.
The division’s products are marketed worldwide. Among
its most important customer groups are magnet-wire
manufacturers, 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 India, the U.S.,
and Italy.