Business Concentrates

European report points way to improvement of REACH plan

The European chemical industry, the European Commission, and various European government agencies published a report last week on the Strategic Partnership On REACH Testing, a trial run of Europe's program for the registration, evaluation, and authorization of chemicals, or REACH (C&EN, June 27, page 34). According to a joint statement released at a press conference on the trial, which is known as SPORT, REACH's current legal text "needs adjustments and clarification. Guidance and tools will be required to enable manufacturers, importers, and downstream users of chemicals to meet their obligations." The study contains 39 recommendations to which the partners have agreed. And it concludes that both companies and authorities will need to adapt their current internal procedures, particularly with respect to communication, cooperation, and workflow. According to Alain Perroy, director general of the European Chemical Industry Council: "The SPORT report clearly calls for further improvement of the REACH proposal, in order to simplify and clarify the process. This is especially important for small and medium-sized enterprises. Industry supports a workable implementation of REACH so that it would function better than the existing legislation and ensure a continued safe use of chemicals."

EVC is now called Ineos

Ending a process that has dragged on for months, Ineos has completed its bid for the public shares of vinyls maker EVC International that it did not already own. EVC shareholders will receive distributions of about $5.30 per share. The names of EVC businesses will change to Ineos Vinyls, Ineos Compounds, and Ineos Films. Separately, Ineos has completed its purchase of BASF's U.S. and Canadian polystyrene businesses, consisting of a plant in Joliet, Ill., that employs about 140 people.

Degussa slates Chinese MMA

Degussa is planning a facility for methyl methacrylate and methacrylate specialties in China by 2009. The company isn't commenting on the size of the facility, which it says will be a "Verbund," or integrated site. Degussa has been aggressively enlarging its methacrylates business this year, buying out partner Cytec Industries in the Cyro Industries joint venture and announcing an expansion at Cyro's Fortier, La., plant that will bring Degussa's global MMA capacity to 480,000 metric tons per year. Lucite International and Mitsubishi Rayon just announced plans for linked MMA plants in Singapore and Texas (C&EN, June 27, page 15).

DuPont gets the lead out

Rhode Island's attorney general has dropped DuPont from the state's six-year-old lawsuit against lead paint makers. Six firms, including NL Industries and Sherwin-Williams, are still charged with selling lead-based paint in the state many years ago despite knowing about the harmful effects of the paint. A trial in October 2002 ended in a hung jury, but the state intends to retry the case in September. DuPont stresses that it did not enter into a settlement with the state, but rather promised to make $12.5 million in charitable donations to lead-awareness organizations.

Huntsman TDI sold to BASF

Huntsman Corp. has sold its toluene diisocyanate business to BASF and will close its Geismar, La., TDI plant. The price wasn't disclosed, although Huntsman says it will take charges of about $39 million related to the sale. Following the deal, Huntsman says it will focus on its business in the other main isocyanate, methylene diphenyl diisocyanate.

Bayer boosts China MDI plan

Bayer's methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) plant in Shanghai's Caojing industrial park will have annual capacity of 350,000 metric tons, 120,000 tons more than originally expected. The company earlier disclosed that its plant will open in 2008, two years later than originally expected. From 2006 to 2008, Bayer will source MDI from a BASF/ Huntsman Corp. facility that will open next year, also in Caojing. Separately, Bayer says its 100,000-metric-ton polycarbonate unit in Caojing will come on-line next year.

BASF affirms cost savings

BASF says it has permanently reduced costs at its Ludwigshafen, Germany, complex by roughly $575 million, which is above its original savings target of $540 million. Its three-year restructuring program involved a systematic inventory of the site. About half the savings came from reducing material costs, including greater efficiency in plants, infrastru cture, and service units. The other half came from personnel cost savings, including the loss of about 3,000 jobs at the site.

Glaxo sees five novel vaccines

GlaxoSmithKline told investors that it hopes to commercialize five novel vaccines over the next five years. These include Cervarix, for the prevention of cervical cancer; Rotarix, for rotavirus and gastroenteritis; Streptorix, for pneumococcal disease; and vaccines for influenza and meningitis. GSK estimates that the five products will enter markets with a combined value of between $11 billion and $18 billion. The firm currently has more than 20 vaccines in clinical development.

Enzyme firms eye ethanol

Two enzyme companies have launched amylases for the fast-growing ethanol fuel market. Ethanol plants now cook grains with thermostable enzymes to begin the process of converting starch to fermentable sugars and then to ethanol. Genencor International says an alpha amylase/glucoamylase blend from its new Stargen line converts uncooked starch to sugars, potentially reducing energy consumption. Separately, Diversa and Valley Research have launched Ultra-Thin enzyme, an alpha amylase that works at the pH of the ethanol production process. Most alpha amylases, the firms say, operate at a suboptimal pH, requiring costly changes to adjust pH.

Pigment, dye jobs move east

Two U.K.-based firms, Elementis and Yule Catto, are closing pigment and dye-related businesses and moving jobs eastward. Elementis plans to shutter most of its East St. Louis pigment facility by the end of this year and transfer production to a new plant in Taicang, China. Elementis will take a $12.3 million charge to account for the transfer. Yule Catto says it will close its Huddersfield, U.K., site as part of a reorganization of its hair dye intermediates subsidiary James Robinson. R&D will remain in the U.K. in new laboratories, but 36 jobs will be lost as production moves to the firm's plants in Germany and India.

Air Liquide in Mideast venture

Air Liquide, Qatar Petroleum, and Qatar Nitrogen have formed a joint venture called Qatar Industrial Gases. Air Liquide will hold 40% of the new company while its partners will hold 60%. Beginning in 2007, the venture will supply oxygen and nitrogen to the oil, gas, petrochemical, and steel industries in the Messaied industrial basin. It will also develop a nitrogen production and distribution system in Ras Laffan Industrial City. Separately, Air Liquide will sell its U.S. home care unit to Apria Healthcare. The unit, VitalAire, had 2004 sales of $20 million.

Citic drops bid for TPI

Citic Resources Holdings, the Hong Kong subsidiary of China's Citic Group, has ended discussions over the acquisition of Thai Petrochemical Industry in cooperation with its former managers. In June, Citic had expressed interest in launching a joint venture, Citic Petrochemical, with the former managers, and acquiring 75% of the bankrupt firm (C&EN, June 6, page 13). Since then, Citic says its attempts to look into TPI's books have been delayed by the Central Bankruptcy Court of Thailand, which was deciding whether the Chinese company's bid would be considered. Instead, a Thai government plan to sell TPI to a group led by the Thai oil and chemical firm PTT is likely to advance.

Pfizer drops drug programs

Pfizer is discontinuing development of capravirine, a nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor under study for HIV/ AIDS patients who failed to respond to current antiretrovirals. The company's decision is based on Phase IIb clinical trial results that produced no difference between standard triple-drug HIV therapies and the same therapy combined with capravirine. Pfizer also will terminate a pact with Altana Pharma to develop Daxas (roflumilast), a phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. Altana, which assumes full rights to the drug, plans to pursue development.

Dishman deals with U.K. firms

India-based Dishman Pharmaceuticals & Chemicals has acquired customers and technology from C6 Solutions, a U.K. fine chemicals maker that went out of business in April. C6 is the former Hickson & Welsh, which was sold by Arch Chemicals in 2003 to Dunedin Capital Partners. The purchase is the second in the U.K. recently for Dishman: In April, it bought the Manchester-based contract research firm Synprotec. The deals are related in that Synprotec has done nutraceutical development work for another U.K. firm, Nuscaan, while C6 has production technology related to one of the nutraceuticals.

BUSINESS ROUNDUP

◾ The European Commission has cleared the proposed joint venture between BP and Nova Chemicals in polystyrene and expandable polystyrene. It also cleared Access Industries' acquisition of the polyolefins joint venture Basell.

◾ BASF has expanded capacity for Elastollan thermoplastic polyurethanes in Wyandotte, Mich., by 10%. The firm says its "mass customization" strategy has created new customer demand.

◾ Ticona is expanding capacity for thermoplastic copolyester elastomers at its Shelby, N.C., site. The company says demand for the polymers, used in automotive, medical, and consumer applications, has "doubled within a short period of time."

◾ Celanese plans to build a plant in China for vinyl acetate ethylene and emulsion polymers. The company says it will soon select a location for the plant and that it will be up and running in 2007.

◾ Novartis will develop, manufacture, and commercialize A-60444, Arrow Therapeutics' treatment for respiratory syncytial virus, the most common respiratory virus in infants. Novartis will make a $10 million up-front payment to Arrow.

◾ Celanese has hired Navigant Capital Advisors to help it review options, including a possible sale, for its business in the food additive docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA. Celanese says several firms have already expressed interest in the business.

◾ Nexen has set up the Canexus Income Fund to acquire its chemical business. Nexen, which will retain a stake in the business, a maker of chlor-alkali and sodium chlorate, is trying to reduce debt stemming from its purchase of North Sea oil assets last year.