New Crop Emerges at Chemspec Show

For chemical producers and service suppliers at this year's ChemSpec Europe in Düsseldorf late last month, "opportunity" was the operative word.

The past few years have not been easy for companies making fine and specialty chemicals. So this year's ChemSpec Europe was an opportunity for economically battered producers to regroup and to say to prospective and current customers: Life goes on; let's do business. In a similar vein, a clutch of "new" companies--either recently spun off or busy establishing new corporate identities--was present.

A case in point is Lanxess, where the "X" of its logo was transformed into a giant landmark dominating the arena floor. The fine chemicals operations of Lanxess, which was spun off from parent Bayer in January, have been hard hit by adverse business conditions in the sector. Chief Executive Officer Axel Heitmann disclosed in May that the fine chemicals unit has been posting losses for five years.

Following its decision to restructure fine chemicals with a plant closure and major job cuts, Lanxess used ChemSpec to emphasize to customers its determination to maintain and strengthen the business, according to Wilhelm Stahl, director for pharmaceutical marketing and R&D. In fact, he added, the unit's hard work is paying off: Orders are up markedly over the comparable period a year ago.

Other "new" companies made their presence felt. One was Arkema, which was carved out of oil giant Total last year to focus on chlor-alkali chemistry, performance products, and intermediates such as fluorine chemicals and hydrogen peroxide. At its booth, the company spotlighted performance products--including specialty epoxides and sulfoxides and hydrazine derivatives.

"We have to cut the past and build the new company," noted Aline Teyssier, who is responsible for business communication within Arkema. "Next year, we will be spun off, with new management, new strategy; this is an exciting challenge."

Almac's Chemical Synthesis Services (CSS) division has been able to build on the new direction it has taken in its short life since its spin-off from Northern Ireland company Galen Holdings in 2002. Galen sold its pharmaceuticals operations to Warner Chilcott, and the rest of the firm was shaped into Almac, providing a range of services for pharmaceutical and biotech industries, said Denis Geffroy, senior business manager for Europe for CSS, one of five Almac divisions.

Geffroy pointed out that the company entered a new field about 18 months ago when it acquired AlbiChem, a spin-off of Edinburgh University that makes pharmaceutical peptides. "As a university spin-off, they didn't have the scale-up capabilities and had no Good Manufacturing Practices-compliant manufacturing. So the marriage was very logical," he said. "It is now fully integrated, and that business has more than doubled."

CSS has also moved into the field of chiral chemistry, noted Ray McCague, vice president for R&D. CSS doesn't develop its own technology as such, he explained, but is able to integrate other companies' technology as the commercial leader of a chiral consortium it launched last December at CPhI, the pharmaceutical ingredients conference, in Brussels.

"It's the application of the technology--that's what is important. You can't always just take a technology from the shelf and make it work," McCague said. "We bring in process development and knowledge of the marketplace."

John C. Wetzel, director of fine chemicals at WeylChem Corp., was preparing customers for the restructuring of his company and related companies this summer when new owner International Chemical Investors will recast various former Rütgers components into five new businesses.

As part of the sale, Rütgers Chemicals’ fine chemicals divisions in the U.S. and Germany have been renamed WeylChem Corp. and WeylChem GmbH. The performance chemicals division of Rütgers Organics Corp. is now Nease Corp., and Rütgers CarboTech GmbH is now CarboTech AC GmbH. Rütgers Organics GmbH is the fifth business involved in the deal.

Wetzel’s firm, WeylChem Corp., is based in Augusta, Ga., while WeylChem GmbH is based in Mannheim, Germany, the historic home of the former Weyl Chemie chemical operations. "We are looking for synergies across the international group," Wetzel said. "International Chemical Investors has a strategic focus on fine chemicals. We think it will be good for us."

Managers with Rhodia's specialty chemicals unit said at ChemSpec that their business has seen no impact from the financial and legal woes of its parent company. Instead, the trade show was a chance to present further developments of the firm's Acilys acidic catalysis systems, launched two years ago.

Jean-Pierre Simonato, Rhodia's development manager for acid catalysis and fluorinated products, described the company's new acids--trifluoromethanesulfonic, or triflic, acid, in particular--as very strong and very stable, resisting thermal or oxidative attack. The family features derivatives of triflic nitride such as triflic anhydride, used in multistep synthesis, and esters and metal derivatives. As Simonato put it, "The tree is opening up for different applications."

These superacids, he added, are designed to replace older acids. For example, running a phenyl alkylation with triflic acid--instead of classical sulfonic acid--has advantages in activity and selectivity, as well as simpler waste treatment.

One member of the triflic acid family is TFSILi, the lithium salt of bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide, which was commercialized by Rhodia a few years back and is now finding new uses. Among the latest applications is as ionic liquids, increasingly popular as solvents used to scavenge acids from reactions by forming liquid, rather than solid-crystal, salts.

IONIC LIQUIDS were also one of the newest families on the stand at BASF, among a host of other products from the German firm's chemical intermediates sector. The company employs these liquids in its Basil--Biphasic Acid Scavenging Utilizing Ionic Liquids--process, which it says obviates time-consuming and expensive filtration to remove by-product salts.

ChemSpec was also an opportunity for firms providing services to chemical manufacturers and customers. For the first time, German chemical park managers joined forces in an impressive booth presenting "Chemical Parks & Sites in Germany." Three regional initiatives were there: ChemCologne, representing the Cologne area; ChemSite, responsible for sites in the Ruhr region; and CeChemNet, or the Central European Chemical Network, which represents chemical sites in the former East Germany including Bitterfeld, Wolfen, Schwarzheide, and Leuna.

These regional operators were joined by Bayer Industry Services, which oversees the four locations of the Bayer Chemical Park in Leverkusen, Dormagen, Krefeld-Uerdingen, and Brunsbüttel. Also participating was BASF, which has begun developing opportunities for investors at its massive Ludwigshafen site. In addition to possibilities for companies that could slot into BASF's integrated, or Verbund, operations, the company last year began an initiative to support newly established chemical and biochemical firms through start-up and early growth.

The group presentation was a departure from the normal civil but spirited rivalry among the different regions, said Margarete Gersemann, director of the ChemSite initiative. She added that the combined display was a good opportunity to present the strengths of Germany as an investment site for fine chemicals production, particularly in light of increasing competition from Chinese and Indian firms.

Representatives from Central and Eastern Europe also were present.

Although dwarfed by the Chinese and Indian pavilions, with their plethora of companies, the Czech Trade Ministry nonetheless had a small pavilion at ChemSpec where it presented opportunities for investment in the country and supported the various Czech firms at the show. For example, Pavel Jursík, managing director of Prague-based Alchimica, was able to show off his company's capabilities as a supplier of chemicals for pharmaceutical, food, and industrial use, as well as for companies and labs involved in R&D.

And the Armenian Development Agency showed up to promote foreign investment in the country, particularly in the fine chemicals sector. In Armenia, agency representatives said, that sector has a long tradition of scientific excellence in custom synthesis and contract research services, as well as its own production.