Thyssen Röhm Kunststoffhandelsgesellschaft (TRK) is the name of the European-scale distribution joint venture for semi-finished plastics to be formed by ThyssenKrupp Werkstoffe (TKW) and Röhm GmbH (D-64293 Darmstadt). Thyssen Krupp will have an unquantified majority in the new group, which will take the form of a holding. It will join under one corporate roof a number of companies, including the Cadillac Plastic (D-68519 Viernheim) joint ventures in Germany, France and Spain formerly operated as equal partnerships of M.A. Hanna (Cleveland, Ohio/USA) and Röhm.

The new distributor, which plans to start up in October of this year, also will encompass Röhm subsidiaries König Kunststoffe GmbH (D-82178 Puchheim), Plexi SA in Spain, as well as the distribution outlets Röhm Austria, Röhm Benelux and Röhm Italia. The individual companies being brought into the new jv will retain their independent operational status.

As a prelude to its merger with Geon, Hanna sold most of its Cadillac assets – mostly in North America but also in the UK and The Netherlands – to GE Plastics. Its stakes in the three jvs with Röhm were sold to TKW´s parent company, ThyssenKrupp Materials & Services AG (D-40235 Düsseldorf).

German plastics distributor Otto Wolff Kunststoffvertrieb (D-40235 Düsseldorf), a 76:24 joint venture of Thyssen Krupp Werkstoffe and Röhm, also will be part of the merged distribution company, but not Thyssen Schulte GmbH, whose portfolio includes iron and nonferrous metals in addition to semi-finished plastics and glass. According to a Thyssen spokesperson, the customer and product structures do not sufficiently mesh.