Albis Iberia, Spanish subsidiary of Albis Plastic (Hamburg / Germany; www.albis.com) has extended its distribution pact with Bayer MaterialScience (BMS, Leverkusen / Germany; www.bayerbms.com) and Lanxess (Leverkusen; www.lanxess.com) to Spain and Portugal and also has stepped in as an additional distributor for BMS in eastern Europe. Since 1 April 2009, Albis has handled regional distribution for Lanxess’ engineering plastics “Durethan” (PA 6 and PA 6.6) and “Pocan” (PBT). Bayer’s “Makrolon” (PC), “APEC” (high heat PC), “Bayblend” (PC/ABS), “Makroblend” (PC/PBT) and “Desmopan” (TPU) were added on 1 May. Previous distributor in Spain and Portugal was Quimidroga (Barcelona / Spain; www.quimidroga.com).

Hans Ruke, general manager for distribution at Albis Plastic, said the deal with the two German producers is part of the company’s “growth strategy” for the Iberian peninsula, where it already distributes the plastics portfolio of LyondellBasell alongside Albis specialities. Albis Iberia recently strengthened its Barcelona office to provide commercial and technical services to customers.

In eastern Europe, the Hamburg distributor will handle BMS products in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania. Dennis McCullough, head of the PC advanced resins business for Europe and Latin America, said the company wanted to offer eastern European customers “another alternative for high quality polycarbonates.” Its other regional distributors are Szoradi, Radka and Kora. Jochen Hardt, head of the polycarbonates business in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Bayer International (Fribourg / Switzerland) said the expansion in eastern Europe underscores the region’s “enormous potential.”