R&D In Shanghai Is Intensifying

Three European chemical makers in widely differing businesses have spelled out plans for their R&D investments in Shanghai.

Kemira inaugurated an Asian Technology Center in Shanghai to focus on the pulp and paper industries last week. The Finnish firm already has cooperative agreements with several Chinese universities, including South China University of Technology in Guangzhou and Nanjing Forestry University.

Separately, Rhodia executives laid the foundation stone in the city for the French company???s new R&D facility, which is scheduled to open this summer. It will employ 150 scientists and target Asian markets such as automotive, electronics, home and personal care, and oil field and agricultural formulations. Among the projects it will be tackling are luminophors for low-energy lighting, engineering plastics, and environmentally sustainable formulations for paper recycling and oil drilling.

Meanwhile, Denmark???s Danisco has inaugurated its new Danisco Shanghai Center in the Hongqiao International Business Park. The new center will combine sales and application laboratories for the entire group as well as research facilities for its Genencor division, which supplies enzymes for textiles, ethanol, food, animal feed, and detergents. The $5 million center will employ around 100 people.