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Business
Business Concentrates
February 14, 2005
| A version of this story appeared in
Volume 83, Issue 7
Hydro Polymers, a division of Norsk Hydro, will spend roughly $110 million to convert its existing diaphragm chlorine plant in Rafnes, Norway, to membrane technology. Conversion work will begin immediately and is scheduled for completion late next year. When completed, the revamped plant will be identical to a new chlorine plant under construction in Rafnes and set to open later this year. The two projects will increase Hydro Polymers' annual capacity to 260,000 metric tons of chlorine and 280,000 metric tons of caustic soda. Hydro's move reflects pan-European pressure to modernize chlor-alkali production, ending uneconomic diaphragm technology and highly polluting mercury-cell technology. Last month, the European Commission decided that exports of mercury from the European Union must cease by 2011. "The commission's proposed strategy ... recognizes the voluntary actions being taken by the European chlor-alkali industry to phase out mercury-based production and past and present actions to substantially reduce manufacturing emissions," says Barrie S. Gilliatt, executive director of Euro Chlor, a chlor-alkali industry group.
Profits rise in Japan
Major Japanese chemical firms continued to improve their financial results in the third quarter of the fiscal year that will end on March 31. The companies said they were able to improve profitability in a favorable business environment, but they fretted about unstable prices for raw materials such as naphtha. Asahi Kasei, Teijin, and Sumitomo Chemical performed particularly strongly by improving their net profit in the first three quarters of the fiscal year by 136%, 171%, and 89%, respectively. Mitsui Chemicals broke rank by shrinking its net income 50%, blaming a poor environment for petrochemicals and exceptional losses in its retirement funds. Mitsubishi Chemical, which improved its net profit by 66%, said the economic environment in Japan and the rest of Asia had been favorable. Sumitomo's petrochemical business swung back into profit in the first nine months, and operating profit in its electronic materials business doubled.
Bayer coating seals stadium
New polyaspartic coating technology from Bayer MaterialScience is being used to stem a leak problem at the Atlanta Braves's Florida spring training facility. Polyaspartic coatings are based on the reaction of an aliphatic polyisocyanate and a polyaspartic ester. Bayer says polyaspartics perform like aliphatic polyurethanes but dry much faster and can be put down in thicker layers. The coating was applied over a new external membrane on the stadium's concrete topping.
Reilly eyes spring exit
Thomas E. Reilly Jr., interim CEO of the American Chemistry Council, says he hopes to hand over the reins to a permanent replacement "by the time the frost is off the greens in Indiana." Speaking in New York City at a meeting of the American Section of the Société de Chimie Industrielle, the former chairman of Indianapolis-based Reilly Industries said ACC is "getting very close" to choosing his successor. In a wide-ranging speech, he criticized the European Union's pending chemical registration program, REACH, as "the precautionary principle gone crazy." Reilly called for a U.S. energy policy that promotes the use of coal rather than natural gas for electricity. And he promised that the industry's long-awaited "essential2" ad campaign would get under way in April.
BASF invests in encapsulation
On the heels of its investment in encapsulation specialist Advanced BioNutrition Corp. last month, BASF Venture Capital is now putting about $2.6 million into the German company Cavis Microcaps. Cavis, which raised some $6 million from BASF and Inventages Venture Capital Investment, has developed small capsules that protect sensitive substances like yeasts, vitamins, and enzymes from degradation in foods, beverages, and other uses.
Invitrogen buys again
Invitrogen has agreed to acquire Dynal Biotech, a privately held supplier of biomagnetic separation technology and reagents, from its majority owner, Nordic Capital, for about $380 million. With the acquisition, its 15th in five years, Invitrogen will add molecular diagnostics tools to its line of genetic research kits for drug discovery and biotech research.
BOC buys into hydrogen firm
BOC has purchased a stake in HERA Hydrogen Storage Systems, a Quebec firm that is developing hydrogen storage and other technologies applicable to fuel cells. John Carolin, global director of sustainable energy at BOC, says hydrogen storage is one of the key barriers to commercialization of fuel-cell vehicles. "HERA's recent nano-catalyst invention is poised to have a significant impact on our ability to find a practical solution to this challenge," he says. Shell Hydrogen Products and Hydro-Quebec CapiTech are other investors in HERA.
Hungary gets expansions
Finland's Dynea and Hungary's BorsodChem will expand capacity for formaldehyde at their BCKC Formalin joint venture in Kazinbarcika, Hungary. The plant, based on Dynea technology, will double in size to 120,000 metric tons annually by year's end. At the same time, BorsodChem, one of the major producers of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate in Central Europe, will increase MDI capacity in Kazinbarcika to 160,000 metric tons per year from 60,000 metric tons today.
Takeda buys biotech Syrrx
Takeda Pharmaceutical is acquiring San Diego's Syrrx for $270 million. Syrrx brings several compounds in clinical development for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. In addition, the Japanese company is keen on Syrrx's technology platform and sees advantages in establishing a "discovery research presence" in the U.S. Syrrx uses high-throughput X-ray crystallographic techniques to characterize drug targets and applies structure-based drug design.
Two biotechs plan layoffs
Maxim Pharmaceuticals will reduce its workforce by 12 to 39 employees in the wake of an FDA statement that it must conduct an additional Phase III trial before submitting a New Drug Application for Ceplene, a small-molecule leukemia therapy. Montreal-based Targanta Therapeutics is terminating nine of its 42 employees, mainly in biology, in a shift from discovery research to preclinical development. "We have redirected our biology resources to better support our chemistry group," CEO Pierre E. G. Etienne says.
Yara adds to fertilizers
Yara, the fertilizer company spun off from Norsk Hydro, has acquired a 30% stake in the Russian fertilizer producer OAO Minudobreniya, also known as Rossosh. Under the deal, Yara will update technology--licensed from Norsk Hydro in the early 1980s--at the Russian plant and will integrate the plant's output with its own. Separately, Yara and its partner, Industries Qatar, have reached a deal with Qatar Petroleum over gas for a planned expansion of their Qafco ammonia and urea joint venture in Qatar. The expansion, Qafco-5, would cost $700 million and open by 2010.
Fuji and JSR in LCD projects
Fuji Photo Film will spend some $380 million to build two plants making triacetyl cellulose film, used to produce polarization films for liquid-crystal displays. The plants will be built in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan, and open in 2006 and 2007. Separately, JSR will spend about $25 million in Taiwan to build a plant producing color resists used to make LCDs. The unit will be located at the Central Taiwan Science-based Industrial Park in Yunlin and is set to open in the summer of 2006.
Sumitomo converts plant
Sumitomo Chemical will convert an existing linear low-density polyethylene unit in Singapore into a polypropylene plant. The converted unit will have capacity for 200,000 metric tons per year and is expected to open in the second half of 2006. Sumitomo notes that both the polyethylene and polypropylene plants are based on its own gas-phase technology. Propylene feedstock will be provided by Petrochemical Corp. of Singapore, a joint venture of Sumitomo and Shell that is building a 200,000-metric-ton propylene unit based on a metathesis process.
Celanese gets raw materials in Nanjing
Celanese has confirmed that it will source carbon monoxide and methanol for its planned Nanjing acetic acid unit from Wison (Nanjing) Chemical. The latter will build a unit to produce both materials and will sell surplus methanol on the merchant market. Celanese expects its plant to open in late 2006 or early 2007. BP is also planning to build an acetic acid unit in Nanjing (C&EN, July 21, 2003, page 12).
Chemical jobs plummet
U.S. chemical employment fell dramatically in January, both from the previous month and from January 2004, according to the latest seasonally adjusted data from the Labor Department. The chemical industry employed 876,100 people in January, down 4,800 from December and 12,900 from January of last year. And the number of hourly production workers fell to 515,900, off 2,000 from December and 2,600 from the comparable month in 2004. In January, production workers put in an average workweek of 42.6 hours, up from 42.4 hours in December but less than the 42.8 hours in January 2004.
BUSINESS ROUNDUP
- Cytec will pay $1.8 billion for UCB Surface Specialties, a $100 million price reduction that reflects actual 2004 results. The acquisition, which was to close late last year, is now expected to close this month pending U.S. regulatory approval.
- Rohm and Haas elected George M. Whitesides, professor of chemistry at Harvard University, to its board of directors.
- Kemira will spend about $13 million to expand production of calcium sulfate pigment in Siilinjärvi, Finland. Capacity will be boosted from 110,000 metric tons to 150,000 metric tons per year, effective early next year.
- Rhodia Pharma Solutions has reached an agreement with Critical Therapeutics to produce zileuton, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in an FDA-approved asthma treatment. Rhodia will make the product in Annan, Scotland.
- Akzo Nobel's Diosynth Biotechnology unit will produce commercial quantities of recombinant human C1 inhibitor (rhC1INH) for the Dutch biotech company Pharming Group. The drug is being developed to treat a genetic disorder caused by a deficiency of the C1 inhibitor protein.
- Hitachi Chemical will spend $25 million to build a 6,000-metric-ton-per-year plant in Suzhou, China, producing epoxy molding compounds for electronic devices. It expects the unit to open in the spring of 2006.
- Zeolyst International, a joint venture between CRI International and PQ Corp., is expanding capacity at its Kansas City specialty zeolite plant. The project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
- Dow Chemical will build a facility in Plaquemine, La., for isopropanolamine and other alkanolamines. The plant is set to open in early 2007, replacing existing amines capacity in Midland, Mich., and South Charleston, W.Va.
BAYER MATERIALSCIENCE PHOTO
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