Wood-Treating Pact Is Formed

Rohm and Haas and Rockwood Holdings' Chemical Specialties Inc. (CSI) subsidiary are planning a wood treatment joint venture that will combine Rohm and Haas's wood biocides line with CSI's wood protection business. The joint venture will be equally owned by CSI and Rohm and Haas and will have headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., where CSI is based. CSI will receive a $75 million payment from Rohm and Haas as part of the agreement. Steve Ainscough, CSI's president, will head the venture. According to the partners, the venture's annual sales will be more than $200 million per year. CSI's core wood treatment chemicals are ammoniacal copper quaternary (ACQ) compounds, which have been replacing chromated copper arsenate since the Environmental Protection Agency banned the use of arsenic in wood preservation at the end of 2003. CSI won a Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award in 2002 for its ACQ technology (C&EN, July 1, 2002, page 26). Rohm and Haas's biocides business is based on isothiazolinone and other chemistries.