Leather chemicals manufacturer Lanxess will further reduce its ties to chrome tanning. It announced in August that it was selling its chrome chemicals business to Brother Enterprises, a Chinese leather chemicals producer. This announcement focused on the sale to Brother of its factory at Newcastle in South Africa.

In a new announcement on November 18, the company said it had found a buyer for its majority stake in a chrome mine near Rustenburg. Lanxess owns 74% of the mine, which it will sell to Clover Alloys, subject to the approval of the relevant authorities. Both companies expect the planned sale to be complete by the end of 2020. A 26% shareholding in the mine will remain in the hands of Dirlem, an entity that represents employees and some private investors. “We have focused our portfolio on specialty chemicals in recent years and are systematically continuing along this path,” said Rainier van Roessel, a member of the Lanxess board of management, on making the announcement. “Following the sale of our chrome chemicals business, it is therefore strategically logical to divest our stake in the chrome ore mine.”

From leatherbiz.com