Business Roundup

Cabot Corp. will build a carbon black masterbatch plant in Tianjin, in northeast China. The $20 million facility will have an initial capacity of 45,000 metric tons per year. Masterbatches are plastic additives used in making pipes, wires, and cables.

Huntsman Corp. will go ahead with a previously proposed expansion of its polyetheramine facility in Singapore. The company says it will invest more than $70 million in a 40,000-ton-per-year plant that will double capacity at the site.

DSM will acquire control of Shandong ICD High Performance Fibres, a manufacturer of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene fiber based in Shandong province, China. DSM says ICD will complement its own business in the high-strength fiber.

BP plans to build a 1.25 million-metric-ton-per-year purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Guangdong province, China. It will be the world’s largest stand-alone PTA plant, BP says. The firm also will expand the existing 1.5 million metric tons of PTA capacity at the two-plant site by 200,000 metric tons.

Myriant Technologies and Davy Process Technology will work together to develop succinic acid as a bioderived feedstock for the production of butanediol, tetrahydrofuran, and γ-butyrolactone. Davy is a major licensor of technology for making butanediol from maleic anhydride.

Celanese is expanding capacity for ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) polymers with high vinyl acetate content by 15% at its Edmonton, Alberta, plant. The company says EVA growth is being fueled by Chinese photovoltaic cell producers, which use EVA polymers as encapsulating materials.

Avantor, formerly Mallinckrodt Baker, will open an electronics applications lab in Taiwan. The facility will enable customers to test Avantor’s materials without interrupting their own production lines for testing.

NSF International has acquired Bristol, Conn.-based Pharmalytica Services, a pharmaceutical contract laboratory. Pharmalytica specializes in extractables and leachables testing, method development and validation, and bioanalysis.

Anacor Pharmaceuticals and Medicis Pharmaceutical have agreed to discover and develop boron-based compounds to treat acne. Medicis will pay Anacor $7 million for R&D work and up to $153 million in future milestone payments, in exchange for an option to exclusively license any product candidates.