Business Roundup

BASF will acquire U.K.-based Sorex Holdings, which makes professional pest management products, for an undisclosed sum. Sorex had 2007 sales of about $90 million, mostly in the U.S. and Europe, for products to control ants, cockroaches, termites, rats, and mice.

GrowHow U.K., the 50-50 joint venture between Terra Industries and Kemira, has temporarily suspended ammonia production at its 500,000-metric-ton-per-year plant in northeast England. The move is a response to a global demand downturn in agricultural and industrial markets, the venture says.

Georgia Gulf is permanently closing its polyvinyl chloride plant in Sarnia, Ontario. Because of the housing slump, which has hit PVC markets such as pipes and windows, the 450 million-lb-per-year plant ran only "periodically" in 2008, the company says.

Braskem is idling one of two lines at each of its two Brazilian ethylene crackers through the end of the year. The move is in response to demand declines and customer inventory destocking. As a result, Braskem's cracker operating rates are at 55% of capacity; its polyolefins business will see a similar decrease in output.

Waters Corp. has purchased Analytical Products Group, in Belpre, Ohio. Waters will merge the business, which has annual sales of about $4 million, into its existing environmental testing and reference standards operations.

BASF has opened an applications lab for drug excipients and active ingredients at its R&D center in Mumbai. Equipped with granulation, tableting, and coating capabilities, the lab will help customers improve their solid dosage products.

Midwest Compliance Laboratories, a provider of regulatory compliance testing, has been launched by five former employees of Pfizer's Vigo County, Ind., facility. The new business is supported by the Terre Haute Innovation Alliance.

Sanofi-Aventis will collaborate with Sweden's MIP Technologies to develop new molecularly imprinted polymers for the analysis of pharmacologically active peptides from plasma samples. Sanofi will have exclusive use of the polymers in peptide drug analysis; MIP retains rights in other applications.