Business Roundup

Shin-Etsu Chemical will partially restart operations at its methyl cellulose complex in Naoetsu, Japan, which suffered an explosion on March 20 that injured 17 people. Restarting are the units that were less damaged.

Lanxess will install a second 20,000-metric-ton-per-year production line at its engineering plastics compounding plant in Wuxi, China. BASF, meanwhile, has begun operating a 45,000-metric-ton engineering plastics compounding facility at its site in Shanghai's Pudong district.

Celanese's emulsions and polyvinyl alcohol business will cut back capacity and restructure R&D across select European and North American sites. The company says its goal is a stronger, more competitive position for the business.

Air Products has formed a joint venture with a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corp. to build an air separation unit in Putian, Fujian province, China. The company says the facility will be the first in China to separate atmospheric gases using cold energy from liquefied natural gas.

Galapagos' BioFocus DPI service division has extended its cancer drug discovery collaboration with U.K.-based Cancer Research Technology, which will fund the research of four BioFocus scientists for a year. BioFocus has also entered a new collaboration in neuroAIDS drug discovery research with the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Merck's Peter Loescher, head of the U.S. drug maker's global human health business, will leave by July 1 to become CEO of Siemens, a German engineering firm. Merck says it will soon name a new head of the business.

Evotec has opened an innovation center for fragment-based drug discovery in Oxford, England. The center will focus on identifying small-molecule fragments for a number of biological targets.

Organon and Philips Electronics are joining forces to develop new drugs for cancer and mental disorders. The companies say they will link biomarker molecules and cells with Philips medical imaging technology to study the effects of psychiatric drugs on the brain at the molecular level.

Akzo Nobel is acquiring Chemcraft Holdings, a privately owned manufacturer of industrial wood coatings. Based in Ontario, Chemcraft has nine plants across the U.S., Canada, and Brazil employing around 500 people. Its sales last year were $145 million.