German specialty chemicals company LANXESS today inaugurated its India Application Development Center (IADC) in Thane, Mumbai, strengthening its innovation and customer service capabilities. The center, taking up an entire floor at LANXESS House, serves as a hub for two business units with capacity for future expansion.
“India is a critical growth region for LANXESS, offering immense opportunities for collaboration and innovation,” Matthias Zachert, Chairman of the Board of Management of LANXESS AG, said at the inauguration ceremony. “The new application development center represents our commitment to delivering solutions tailored to the needs of our local customers while driving organic, innovation-led growth. I am also thrilled that this important milestone for India coincides with our 20th anniversary as a company: an opportunity to celebrate twice.”
Speaking to the press, Matthias Zachert said that LANXESS believes that the Indian market will continue to grow and hence this IADC will enable more products being introduced into the market specific to customer requirements. This he said “will further expand our local footprint in India”.
The IADC underscores LANXESS’ strategic focus on India as a key market and innovation hub, enhancing the company’s ability to deliver high-value, specialized solutions tailored to local needs. In a first step, it integrates expertise from two key businesses in India: Lubricant Additives (high-performance additives and additive systems, synthetic base fluids and ready-to-use lubricants) and Material Protection Products (antimicrobial, disinfection, and preservation solutions). Later it will extend to the other business units of LANXESS.
Customers will for example benefit from advanced studies of friction and wear of lubricants, the synthesis and testing of new materials and the evaluation of the antimicrobial performance of paints, emulsions, and other water-based chemistries.
“By establishing the IADC, we are bringing our expertise closer to our Indian customers. This center will not only support innovation but also strengthen our ability to address evolving market trends with speed and precision,” Namitesh Roy Choudhury, Vice Chairman and Managing Director at LANXESS India, said.
The establishment of the IADC aligns with LANXESS’s transformation into a specialty chemicals company, focusing on less cyclical business areas and solutions for critical applications such as sustainable mobility or consumer protection. India’s growing industrial base and expanding consumer markets make it an ideal platform for driving such advancements.
Matthias also revealed that LANXESS is on course to build a Global Capability Centre (GCC) in India for which the initial step of building engineering excellence team has begun. The GCC will also cater to the requirements of LANXESS units in Europe and later extend globally to requirements in LANXESS plants in other regions also.
Lanxess is continuing on its ambitious sustainability drive developing more and more sustainable variants of existing products by reducing its’ carbon footprint. The company is working towards reducing carbon emissions and be climate neutral by 2040 and achieve Net Zero by 2050.
Speaking on global challenges, Matthias said that overall there is depressed demand from consuming industries; there are also threats of trade wars combined with geopolitical tensions and continuing disruptions in supply chains. Matthias predicted that global value chains will turn more and more regional and many global companies will have to rethink their global value chains.
Matthias feels that in China the slowdown is bottoming out and is expected to reverse soon. He said that China continues to be the world’s largest chemicals’ producer as well as the world’s biggest market.
LANXESS has a long-standing presence in India, with representation from all 10 of its business units and a workforce of around 800 employees. The company operates two production hubs: one in Jhagadia, Gujarat, focusing on Rhein Chemie, Liquid Purification Technologies, and Material Protection Products, and another in Nagda, Madhya Pradesh, which specializes in flavours and fragrances.
