MOSCOW (MRC) -- Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. have agreed to dissolve a global alliance established between the two companies in 1999, reported GV.
The alliance primarily consists of four joint venture operating companies, two in Japan and one each in North America and Europe, which Goodyear earlier told "PetroChemical News" (PCN) were “purely tire” and not involved in the production of synthetic rubber.
"While we have derived value from the alliance over the last 16 years, Goodyear is well positioned today to pursue our strategy on our own," said Goodyear Chairman and Chief Executive Richard J. Kramer.
As MRC informed before, Japan's Sumitomo Chemical Co started to mothball the ageing 415,000 tpa naphtha cracker at its Chiba plant from May 11, 2015. To offset lost production, Sumitomo Chemical raised its stake in Maruzen Petrochemical Co's 55%-owned unit Keiyo Ethylene to 45% and will receive 59.4% of petrochemical output from the venture's naphtha cracker.
Though Sumitomo Chemical's cracker will be shut for good, the company plans to resume operations of downstream petrochemical units at the Chiba plant from the beginning of July, using petrochemical feedstock from Keiyo Ethylene's 768,000 tpy cracker located nearby.
Sumitomo Chemical is a Japanese based manufacturer of a diverse range of products, including basic chemicals, petrochemicals and plastics, fine chemicals, agricultural chemicals, IT-related chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
MRC