New Name For LANXESS Business Unit - Lustran Polymers - A New Strong ABS Brand

Leverkusen, Germany — The LANXESS business unit Styrenic Resins has a new name: Lustran Polymers. With this name change, the chemical group's business unit is focusing on the top brand Lustran®. The name change is a consequence of the repositioning of the business, which has already taken place, to focus on ABS specialties and pre-colored grades. The name Lustran Polymers visualizes the color-intensive new beginning of the LANXESS business unit Styrenic Resins. A new graphic with a color-balanced logo gives vivid expression to the claim: "The colorful difference". With its wealth of technical expertise and cutting-edge technology, Lustran Polymers will make its debut as a distinctive and independent brand on October 1, 2006.

On gaining its independence, LANXESS started an exemplary restructuring of the previously unsatisfactory business. The key feature of this process is regionalization with independent management teams who manage the business under their own regional and operational responsibility from product development and production through to marketing. This allows them to deal with customer requirements more quickly, on a more individual basis and with more focus, because they are familiar with the peculiarities of the regions and product portfolios concerned. Regionalization extends to production capacities and product portfolios being adapted to local conditions and being concentrated at one site if possible. "We want to further emphasize the outstanding technological position of our business and the excellent market position of our products," explained the head of the business unit, Hans-Joachim Kogelnik.

The initial economic success of the new structure was recently announced by the Chairman of the Board of LANXESS AG, Axel Heitmann, when he presented the figures for the 2nd quarter of 2006: "The restructuring of the styrenics business is going more quickly than planned. Profitability is continuing to improve. This is a clear indication of the effectiveness of our new strategy."

Lustran Polymers is one of the biggest suppliers in the sector. ABS specialties from LANXESS are plastics with high mechanical strength, outstanding processing properties and excellent surface quality. In addition, LANXESS offers a wide range of customized colors and a broad spectrum of products for special applications. Lustran® ABS specialties are used in the following areas: electrical engineering, IT, bath/sanitary ware, automotive engineering and toys as well as medical technology. Typical applications include interior and exterior components for cars, housings for all types of equipment, toys and garden furniture. The Lustran Polymers business unit is part of the LANXESS Engineering Plastics segment, which achieved sales of EUR 1.737 billion in the 2005 business year.

SOURCE: LANXESS