Sanyo Trading has recently signed a sole agency agreement for Japan with Brisil Technologies, a developer and manufacturer of biomass rice husk silica. The agreement will accelerate the supply of highly dispersible biomass silica for tire and rubber compounding to the Japanese market. Silica is an important raw material for fuel-efficient tires, and demand for silica is expected to grow...
German chemicals company Evonik has formed a strategic alliance with the Perner Group from Austria and Pichit Biopower from Thailand, two of the world’s leading silica producers, to supply to tire manufacturers Ultrasil, a bio-based raw material silica. The product’s carbon footprint is significantly reduced because the raw material, sodium silicate, is produced from rice husk ash (RHA), an agricultural...
Evonik Industries AG recently announced Ultrasil 4000 GR, a silica with high dispersibility and low specific surface area to allow for an extremely high silica fill ratio in tire treads. Compared to using conventional silica, Ultrasil 4000 GR vastly improves traction for winter tires on snowy and slushy roads. Ultrasil’s grades also have uses beyond tire treads and sidewalls, including...
Tosoh Corp. (TYO:4042) recently announced that group company Tosoh Silica Corp. has decided to establish a JV with South Korea’s Namhae Chemical Corp. Named Tosoh Namhae Silica Corp., this new JV will build a base to produce silica for use in fuel-efficient tires. Plans are for the new production base to get up and running in October 2021. This would...
Zeon Corp. (TYO:4205) recently revealed that it is set to supply solution-polymerized rubber to Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. (TYO:5101). The rubber will be sold through ZS Elastomers Co. Ltd., and is slated to be used for a white polymer that is highly reactive with silica in Yokohama Rubber’s latest studless tire, the iceGuard 6. Due to the solution-polymerized rubber’s strong...
Bridgestone Corp.’s (TYO:5108) Blizzak studless tires have for the 16th consecutive year been the most popular tire choice for passenger cars in five major cities within the Hokkaido and Northern Tohoku regions, which see heavy snowfall. The tires possess overwhelming market strength in these cities, where they are installed on approximately half of all passenger cars. At the core of...
