When the world watched the opening ceremony of the Soccer World Cup at the ultra-modern Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, it also had its eyes on LANXESS. The colored components in the striking stadium facade of glass-fiber-reinforced concrete panels are based on iron oxide pigments from LANXESS, a global specialty chemicals company based in Leverkusen, Germany. These high-quality pigments are marketed under the brand name Bayferrox®.

The 205-million-Euro reconstruction forming the new emotional focus of the World Cup – where both the opening match and the final will be held – symbolizes Africa past and future. For the cladding of Africa's largest stadium, which will seat nearly 95,000 spectators, the architects were inspired by the shape and color of the traditional African drinking pot, the "calabash". Because of its structure and the fact that the concrete shell is designed in typically African color shades, the stadium is also called the "African Pot".

The natural-looking colors of the 33,600 colored glass-fiber-reinforced panels on the 43,000-square-meter outer shell reproduce the colors of African calabashes. Some 22,000 kilograms of LANXESS pigments were needed to produce the 55,000 kilograms of liquid color for the spectacular facade. The iron oxides, which LANXESS manufactures in the world's largest production plant for color pigments at its site in Krefeld-Uerdingen, have outstanding light and weather resistance and high color strength.