Business Roundup

Omnova Solutions is eliminating 50 million lb per year of latex capacity at its Mogadore, Ohio, plant by consolidating production in Mogadore and other Omnova facilities. The company says employment won't be affected because the site's workforce has been reduced by 20% in the past three years through attrition.

Bayer MaterialScience has purchased intellectual property related to thermoplastic polyurethanes from Collins & Aikman. Bayer says the deal will allow it to extend its portfolio of thermoplastic polyurethane molded skins used in automotive instrument panels.

Dow Chemical and Siam Cement are in the final stages of planning for a specialty elastomers plant to be built in Map Ta Phut, Thailand. The two companies already have four joint venture plants at the site and last year announced plans for a second ethylene cracker there.

BASF is expanding automotive catalyst capacity "significantly" at its plant in Indaiatuba, Brazil, over the next several months. The company expects the automotive sector in the country to expand by 20% in 2008. Moreover, the Brazilian government is adopting emissions standards modeled on those in the U.S. and Europe.

Dow Chemical has acquired the 3-iodo-2-propynyl butyl carbonate (IPBC) marketing and registration assets of Sostram. Dow says the purchase will allow it to accelerate growth of the biocidal compound in the coatings, wood preservation, metalworking fluid, and building material industries.

The National Paint & Coatings Association and the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology have agreed to merge. The organizations will keep separate identities but will combine management and administration. FSCT's International Coatings Exposition, due to be held later this year in Chicago, will be cancelled and combined with NPCA's American Coatings Show, scheduled for June in Charlotte, N.C.

A. Schulman will close its engineering plastics plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, and pursue the sale of its toll-processing plant in Orange, Texas. The company says the moves are part of its 100-day plan to improve profitability.

Asahi Kasei will supply Dow Chemical with ion-exchange membranes used in the electrolysis of brine to produce chlorine and caustic soda. Dow is starting construction this year of a chlor-alkali facility in Freeport, Texas, that will supply a new Shin-Etsu Chemical complex producing polyvinyl chloride.

Celanese and Southwest Research & Design Institute of Chemical Industry will cooperate in acetyl chemistry R&D. Based in Chengdu in the Chinese province of Sichuan, SWRDICI is part of ChemChina, a state-owned conglomerate made up of many companies previously belonging to China's Ministry of Chemical Industry.