Business Roundup

Eastman Chemical is exiting the business of making vitamin E TGPS, a pharmaceutical excipient, and plans to close its Wales manufacturing plant. The site was purchased by Eastman in 1995 and currently employs 65 people.

Merck KGaA has named Bernd Reckmann general partner and executive board member, giving him responsibility for its chemicals business. He replaces Walter Zywottek, who is retiring after more than 40 years with the German company.

Octal Holding expects to build 500,000 metric tons per year of polyethylene terephthalate capacity in Salalah, Oman, by mid-2010. The Omani company says the expansion will give it total polyester capacity of 800,000 metric tons and make it the largest producer of the bottle- and sheet-making plastic in the Middle East.

Ashland will incorporate propanediol made by the DuPont Tate & Lyle joint venture into its Envirez composite resins, which are partially derived from soybean oil. DuPont Tate & Lyle makes propanediol from corn-based sugars.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. has decided not to invest in OSOS Petrochemicals, a $1 billion chemical joint venture planned for Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. SABIC signed a memorandum of understanding to take a 35% stake in the project (C&EN, Jan. 21, page 25) but says negotiations did not yield a final agreement.

Kemira will more than triple its production of water treatment chemicals in China through an investment at a subsidiary there. The company will boost production of polyaluminum chloride to 20,000 metric tons per year at its site in Chongqing in southwestern China. The expansion will open in first-quarter 2009.

Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, and Tate & Lyle have filed petitions with the U.S. government alleging that imports of citric acid and certain citrate salts from Canada and China are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value. The firms seek tariffs of about 65% for Canada and 188% for China.

Sanofi Pasteur will spend $100 million on a research facility at its Connaught Campus in Toronto. The facility, which is set to open in 2010, will house R&D of new vaccines. With the new facility, Sanofi Pasteur says it will have invested more than $300 million at the Toronto site since 2000.