Business Roundup

Rockwood Holdings and Kemira have completed formation of Sachtleben, their joint venture in titanium dioxide. Owned 61% by Rockwood and 39% by Kemira and based in Duisburg, Germany, the new company is a leading producer of specialty titanium dioxide pigments, with pro forma 2007 sales of roughly $840 million.

PPG Industries will exit the chemical mechanical planarization products business by the end of the month. The business, which employed about 16 people, made pads used to polish semiconductor devices. PPG says it will focus on growth in coatings and specialty products.

H.B. Fuller has acquired Egymelt, a maker of hot melt and specialty water-based adhesives that has headquarters in Cairo. Fuller says it plans to expand the Egyptian firm, which employs 21 people and had sales of $4 million in 2007.

Shin-Etsu Chemical, the world's largest producer of silicon wafers, has acquired 108 acres of land in Shirakawa County, Japan, to expand its wafer facilities there. The rural region is blessed with an abundance of water, which silicon producers use in large amounts, Shin-Etsu says.

Kemira has acquired Zibo Huaqing Water Purifying Products, a water treatment chemicals company based in China's Shandong province. The firm employs 50 people and makes polyaluminum chloride for industrial water treatment, Kemira says.

Oxford Catalysts has signed an agreement with the Thai oil and gas company PTT to supply catalysts and know-how for a system to produce liquid fuels by using a small-scale Fischer-Tropsch process. According to Oxford, PTT wants to add value to its discovered but unusable gas reserves and make fuels out of locally available biomass.

Praxair will build two hydrogen plants at BP's Whiting, Ind., refinery with a total capacity of 200 million standard cu ft per day. BP will use the gas to upgrade heavy Canadian crude oil to lighter, cleaner-burning fuels.

Chemtura and Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Venomix have extended their collaboration to develop insecticides based on spider venom peptides. Venomix has identified more than 50 such peptides based on technology licensed from the University of Connecticut.

Provid Pharmaceuticals, a New Jersey-based drug discovery service company, has formed a medicinal chemistry alliance with Acesys Pharmatech of Nanjing, China. The firms say the alliance will combine Provid's drug discovery and project management expertise with Acesys' medicinal chemistry resources and favorable cost structure.

Novacea and Transcept Pharmaceuticals are merging in a deal by which Novacea will issue new shares of stock to the owners of Transcept, a specialty drug firm developing new applications for existing sleep medications and psychiatric drugs.