Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 47
of application are continually tapped for existing or new
products.
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,
metal powders and alloys for 3D printing, and services.
Aluminum-based effect pigments comprise the largest
part of ECKART’s business. Customers use them particu-
larly 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 man-
ufacture of aerated concrete. Bronze effect pigments gen-
erate 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 manage-
ment 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 Swit-
zerland 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 international
manufacturers of coatings, printing inks, and plastics.
Other important customers are manufacturers in the construction
industry and the cosmetics sector. ECKART achieves
nearly half of its sales in Europe. 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. The acquisition of the British specialist
Aluminium Materials Technologies Ltd. (May 2020) and
the business activities of TLS Technik GmbH & Co. Spezialpulver
KG in February 2021 will expand the portfolio in industrial,
metal-based 3D printing and in the future customers can
be offered even more high-performance materials.
ELANTAS
The companies in the ELANTAS division offer their custom-
ers 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 management
of ELANTAS GmbH, based in Wesel. The latter
controls the division’s activities and supports its operating
subsidiaries, which develop and produce insulating mate-
rials 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 man-
ufacturers, 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.