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Dow completes Rohm and Haas acquisition
The Dow Chemical Company has completed its acquisition of Rohm and Haas. The deal will create a $14 billion diversified business portfolio, which will be called Dow’s Advanced Materials division. The division is intended to achieve $3 billion in additional value growth opportunities, as well as annual cost synergies of $1.3 billion. Rohm and Haas is the key element in Dow’s new Advanced Materials division. Pierre Brondeau has been named president and CEO of this division, which includes Coatings, Building and Construction, Specialty Materials, Adhesives and Functional Polymers, and Electronic Materials.
Merck to cut back on pigment production
German-based Merck KGaA is set to cut back on pigment production in Germany, the U.S., Japan and China. The company said it would put approximately 500 German pigment workers on shorter hours but didn’t expect job cuts domestically. The 500 affected German workers are at the Gernsheim facility. Other production sites in Savannah, GA/US; Onaham, Japan and Songjiang, China would also be affected by production cutbacks. Company spokesperson, Phyllis Carter, wouldn’t say if that meant facility shutdowns, shorter hours programs or job cuts.
SSCT holds annual meeting and technology conference
The 73rd Annual Meeting and Technology Conference of the Southern Society for Coatings Technology (SSCT), was held at The King and Prince Beach and Golf Resort in St. Simons Island, Georgia on March 15-18, 2009. Leading off the Technical Sessions was the keynote speaker,Stewart Williams of Rohm & Haas Company who presented “The Evolution of Green Chemistry in Coatings.”The theme “On the Seas of ‘Green’ Formulating,” continued to be explored through each of the remaining sessions. Some of the speakers included: Laurie Morris, Alberdingk-Boley, Inc.; Matthew Linares, Evonik-Degussa Corporation; Mark Freshwater, Lansco Colors; Thad Broome, Southern Exposure & Consulting Co., LLC; Gregory Turco, BASF Performance Coatings; Scott Murray, Elementis Specialties, Inc.; Chris Howard, Evonik, Tego Coating Additives & Specialty Resins;James Rawlins, The University of Southern Mississippi; Romesh Kumar, Clariant Corporation;Carl Sullivan, Reichhold, Inc.; and Christine Chase, Green Seal, Inc.
Altana acquires additives business of DyStar group
The specialty chemicals Group Altana has acquired the high-performance additives business of the Frankfurt-based DyStar group effective as of March 30, 2009. The acquired business with annual of sales of approximately €7.5 million will be integrated into the BYK Additives & Instruments division. It mainly comprises the technologies for the production of additives, for the processing of plastics compounds and the existing customer contacts. The production of the additives will be integrated into BYK´s main factory in Wesel.
BASF executives to take over Ciba CEO and CFO roles
The board of directors of Ciba, now part of BASF, has appointed Michael Heinz from BASF as the new CEO of Ciba. In addition to his role as CEO, Heinz will continue with his responsibilities for the integration of Ciba into BASF. Brendan Cummins is stepping down from his role as CEO and will remain at Ciba in an advisory capacity for the next few months.
Hans-Juergen Seeger, currently managing director of BASF Services Europe GmbH, has been appointed CFO of Ciba, taking over from Niklaus Meier who had been the ad interim CFO, since the former CFO, Juerg Fedier left the company at the end of 2008.
Münzing sells leather business
Münzing has sold its leather business to Zschimmer & Schwarz in Heilbronn, Germany. The transaction was effective on March 31st, 2009 and includes the transfer of Münzing’s complete line of leather auxiliaries and all customer relationships.
LyondellBasell to reduce LDPE production in France
LyondellBasell Industries announced a project to cease the production of low density polyethylene (LDPE) at Fos-sur-Mer, France. The unit has been partially idled since March and the company has started the employee consultation process regarding a project to shut down the unit permanently. The plant currently has approximately 80 permanent employees.
“Taking into account the current market environment and our future projections our conclusion is that this plant is no longer economically viable. We are able to meet projected customer demand for LDPE with product supplied from our other LDPE facilities,” said Richard Roudeix, LyondellBasell’s vcice president for polyethylene in Europe.
LyondellBasell said that LDPE production activities in France will be focused on the company’s world-scale plant located at Berre, France.
Atlas launches new device
Atlas Material Testing Technology has introduced its latest technology for ultra-accelerated exposure testing. This new outdoor testing device can provide approximately 63 years of South Florida UV radiation exposure in a single year. Atlas developed this new solar concentrator technology in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Russian Institute of Laser Optical Technology (ILOT) under a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program.
Similar in concept to Atlas’ moderately accelerated EMMA technology, the ultra-accelerated device tracks the sun while concentrating reflected sunlight on test specimens mounted in a target area. However, the new patented mirror system used in the ultra-accelerated concentrator has very high reflectance in the UV and near visible wave length ranges while attenuating reflectance in the longer wavelength visible and IR portions of the solar spectrum. This technology allows for very high concentrations of UV energy without excessive heating of test samples.
U.S. demand for disinfectant and antimicrobial chemicals to reach $1.2B in 2013
Demand for disinfectant and antimicrobial chemicals is projected to increase 3.6% annually to $1.2 billion in 2013. Although this represents a substantial deceleration in value gains from the 2003-2008 period, growth in volume will accelerate due to rebounding production levels in key industrial markets such as coatings and plastics. The strong value gains in the previous five-year period were due in large part to price runups from 2005 to 2008, when the price of crude oil and other raw materials soared. These and other trends are presented in “Disinfectant & Antimicrobial Chemicals,” a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry research firm.
Demand for disinfectant chemicals in industrial, institutional and commercial, and consumer markets is expected to grow, despite considerable scientific disagreement about the necessity of using disinfectant chemicals in many of their current applications. Gains in the consumer market—the fastest-growing overall—will be driven by fears of foodborne and other pathogens, as disinfectant active ingredients are being added to many traditional cleaning products that have not typically contained such ingredients. In the health care market, there is broad agreement that aggressive infection control programs are necessary. As a result, it will remain one of the largest outlets for these products.
Use of these chemicals in antimicrobial additive applications, such as in paints, plastics or textile products, is less controversial. These applications are less likely to create an environment that could lead to the formation of resistant strains of bacteria, and the chemicals are used to prolong the functional lives of these products. However, there are environmental concerns about some of these additives.
Organosulfurs will be the fastest-growing product category, due mainly to developments in the paint and coatings industry, the largest user of these products. Not only is overall coatings production expected to rebound from a poor performance in 2008, but organosulfurs are likely to be the leading replacement for tributyl tin (TBT) in the marine antifoulant segment.
Pricing changes
Dow: April 1–$0.04=$0.05/lb. increase for select oxygenated solvents.
Oxea: March 1–€25/MT increase for n-butyl acetate in Europe; April 1–€30/MT increase for n-/i-butyl acetate, n-/i-butanol and n-/i- butyraldehyde and €50/MT increase for n-propyl acetate, n-propanol, di octyl phthalate and 2-ethyl hexanol in Europe.
Distributor appointments
AkzoNobel Functional Products has appointed Archway Sales to distribute its Bermcoll and Bermodol product lines in eastern MI, IN with the exception of the northwest section, OH, KY, WV, western PA, TN, MI, AK and northern LA.
Hercules Specialty Resins has appointed Ashland Distribution to distribute Ashland Aqualon Functional Ingredients.
Vinavil has appointed Univar to distribute its range of polymer dispersions and redispersible powders in Germany.
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