Songwon partners with W. Zink, plans European expansion

With plans in place to create a worldscale European facility in 2008, Korean additives supplier Songwon (Ulsan) and German firm W. Zink GmbH (Jettingen-Scheppach) announced a cooperative arrangement for one-pack systems (OPS). W. Zink has 40 years of experience in compound, additive masterbatch, and OPS development, with capabilities in grinding, mixing, compounding, and compacting of plastic materials and additive systems. Songwon, which has locations in Switzerland, the U.S., China, India, and Japan, supplies antioxidants, light stabilizers, UV absorbers, heat stabilizers, plasticizers, lubricants, surface coatings, and other chemicals.

In September 2006, Songwon announced a strategic plan to establish direct channels to customers outside of Korea; previously the supplier had relied on Clariant to distribute its materials to these firms. Over the last year as part of that plan, the company opened Songwon International-India (Mumbai) in August 2007, as well as a European headquarters in Frauenfeld, Switzerland and U.S. headquarters in Houston, TX. In addition, the company added a second antioxidant production facility and extended its product range.—[email protected]