DICKSON, Tenn.—Zinc Oxide L.L.C.'s manufacturing plant in Dickson is operational, and the firm has selected Greenview Chemical as its sales agent for its zinc oxide materials.
The firm also has been busy selecting distributors. It formed a partnership with Lintech L.L.C. on Aug. 1 and earlier in the year reached an agreement with ChemSpec Ltd. Both distributors will focus on the rubber compounding markets.
ChemSpec will cover mostly the Midwest region with a focus on the Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania rubber compounding markets. Lintech will oversee the remaining states in the U.S.
Zinc Oxide selected TMC Materials Inc. and Cary Co. as regional distributors. TMC will cover East Coast states and focus on the coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers markets, with Cary focusing on painting and coatings in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Western Kentucky, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
The firm is in the process of finalizing an agreement with a fifth distributor.
Zinc Oxide's 170,000-sq.-ft., 40,000-metric-ton facility in Dickson sits on 57 acres and employs 60 with two rail sidings. It began operations on July 15. The firm utilizes the French process method to produce zinc oxide from high grade and special high grade zinc metal, in addition to recycled zinc.
The company will offer grades designed for the rubber, tire, chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, oil additives, ceramics, electronics, glass, plastics, paint and coatings, tape and adhesives, and fertilizer markets.
“It's a busy time,” said Ed Smith, Zinc Oxide's vice president of sales and marketing. “We have over 170 customers we're sending samples to, and those approvals can take anywhere from 30 to 90 days for approval before we can start shipping truckload volumes out.”
Zinc Oxide said Greenview Chemical will handle direct sales relationships for both truckload and less than truckload consumers in the Midwest, covering Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota and Kentucky.
Greenview Chemical is based in Chicago with an office in the Detroit area and several warehouses throughout the Midwest. According to Zinc Oxide, Greenview Chemical markets products utilized by the tire and rubber, specialty chemical, concrete, agricultural, and tape and adhesives industries.
The company makes polymer-bound dispersions of accelerators, power accelerators and antioxidants, carbon black, stearic acid, magnesium oxide, calcium carbonate, silica and insoluble sulfur, Zinc Oxide said.
“Greenview has over 40 years of experience in selling zinc oxide for other companies,” Smith said. “So they have some very strong relationships in the Midwest territory, and they have a very complementary line for the rubber and plastics market.”
According to Zinc Oxide, Greenview has partnered with a pre-weigh company capable of pre-weighing any chemical or combination of chemicals into low-melt pre-weighed inclusion bags ranging from 1 to 50 pounds.