Operations have begun at BASF's pilot facility for Steron, a novel coating process, at their Ludwigshafen plant.

UK company Corium Solutions Ltd, specialists in the chemical protection, finish and aftercare of leather material and products, have just expanded their global operations to China. With their head office in the Midlands, the company opened their first factory in Asia in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, in July.

Pastel colors are in! This is increasingly evident in leathers used in automotive interiors. As white or very light-coloured surfaces are by nature more susceptible to soiling they present a major challenge for tanners.

Clariant's Leather Business have completely relaunched their highly concentrated Supronil HK finishing dyestuff range. This new selection of 17 brilliant shades, all produced by Clariant, stands for leather dyeing at its best. These new shades can provide an ultra fashionable or a classical approach.

LANXESS, one of the leading suppliers of leather chemicals, and the Japanese chemical company Daikin Industries Ltd, Osaka, have jointly developed a water-based long-lasting antisoiling system that effectively protects pale-coloured leather surfaces from soiling.

LANXESS have developed a technology for upgrading leathers with structural defects such as veininess and looseness.

In the highly competitive car market, one of the major distinguishing features is often represented by the provision of leather interiors.

The product offers numerous advantages: ease of application lowers the cost of production and environmental impact is eliminated. W Thane X Top has been proven highly resistant by both wet and dry flexometer testing, and gives the brilliance of refinishes such as patent and abraded, achieving an extraordinary lustre without altering the characteristic softness of the leather.

A bright multicoloured dress introduces Stahl's Fashion Colour Forecast poster for autumn and winter 2008/2009. The poster will make a bright show on the wall to cheer-up the work place over the dull winter hours.

According to Ahmad Waseem Tabassum, export executive, Shafi Reso-Chem have introduced an environment friendly, phenol free degreasing agent Evolite 2020. Evolite 2020 is a fatty alcohol based wetting/degreasing agent that smoothly removes extra fats from leather without making it dry. It is a non ionic synergistic, viscous liquid. Evolite 2020 is described as environment affable and biodegradable; it can work at any pH. Evolite 2020 has high wetting power. Its low quantity is effective for more area, it can be diluted easily and is low foaming.

Sudarshan Kumar Mishra, senior technical manager, C & E Ltd, India, highlights the benefits of a finely dispersed casein product that improves the finish of leathers. CTOP-AMC is an alkaline anionic solution of very finely dispersed casein, which yields a highly transparent and medium hard film with a requisite resistance to water. The film yielded by CTOP-AMC gives a mirror like surface and a microscope shows the appearance of tiny mirror-like plane surfaces separated about 0.3mm apart, which is close to the average resolving power of human sight.

Cromogenia launched the following products at Tanning Tech:

This year, for the first time, the Stahl display at Fimec will feature wet-end, finishing and Permuthane using a brand new stand. This will make it easier for visitors to see the complete range of Stahl products.

The newly developed Roda pur ADX is a very soft and finely dispersed polyurethane that can be utilised for all types of leather articles.

New SilvaChimica products for the wet-end include: Ritan S powder is a mixture of vegetable extracts and condensation products of phenol-naphthalene sulphonic acids. It is suitable for the retannage of chrome tanned leathers where good fullness and roundness are required. Moreover, it has a very good dispersing effect so that it can be used in combination with other vegetable and synthetic tannins to improve their penetration and distribution.

In their beamhouse range, ATC have launched Actilime DSC, a new liming auxiliary that provides a dehairing effect, swelling control and better grain cleanliness. It also allows high reduction of sodium sulfides in the process.

The demands made on modern waterproof leathers in terms of dynamic water resistance, water vapour permeability as well as the aesthetic properties associated with leather such as handle, softness, lightness and dyeability led to Trumpler introducing the Truposist waterproofing system some twelve years ago. This comprised of two products: Truposist A (a polymer/fatliquor-based waterproofing agent) and Truposist C (a silicone-based hydrophobing agent).

Silvateam group built new plants in 2006 for the production of synthetic tannins. The two new production lines launched, one located in San Michele Mondovì (Italy) and the other in La Escondida (Argentina), will increase the global production capacity of synthetic tannins by 5,000 tons per year, to a total of 20,000 tons.

Shafi Reso-Chem have introduced an environment friendly, phenol free degreasing agent. Evolite 2020 is a fatty alcohol based wetting/ degreasing agent that removes extra fats without drying out the leather. The product is a non- ionic synergistic, viscous liquid. It is environmentally friendly, biodegradable, and can work at any pH. Low quantities are effective over a large area. Evolite 2020 can be diluted easily and makes low foaming. Evolite 2020 has high wetting power and is suitable for tanners wishing to make quality leather without harming the environment.

DuPont are introducing a new, patented manufacturing process to remove more than 97% of trace levels of perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA), its homologues and direct precursors from their fluorotelomer products. This company milestone meets key commitments to the EPA voluntary stewardship programme for product content, three years ahead of schedule.

As a late consequence of Clariant's spin-off from Sandoz in 1995, the Leather Business is required to rename all products starting with the prefix: Sand-&bsquo; within their product portfolio.

Zschimmer & Schwarz have a worldwide acknowledged professional competence in the field of wet-end processes. All their leather auxiliaries are produced in Germany, guaranteeing a constant high level of quality.

Tanac say they are the world's biggest Mimosa vegetable extract producer and cultivate their own forests (70 million trees) which are certified under FSC (Forest Stewardship Council). Tanac's ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified facilities in Brazil produce around 35,000 metric tonnes of Mimosa extract per year and the company are represented in more than 75 countries worldwide.