Spolchemie, DIC Form Partnership

Czech specialty chemicals maker Spolchemie has formed a joint venture with Sun Chemical, a subsidiary of Japanese chemical company DIC, in resins production.

As part of the agreement, Sun Chemical will transfer production of alkyd and varnish resins its plant in Vienna, Austria, to Spolchemie's site in Usti nad Labem, a town on the Elba river north of Prague. The plant will make its initial shipments of product this month.

Spolchemie says the new partnership builds on another joint venture between the companies, EPISPOL, formed in 2003. The company says that the new alkyd resins will strengthen its presence in printing inks and industrial coatings.

Spolchemie is a regional maker of coatings resins and chlorine. The company, however, gained notoriety in 2008 when it signed on to purchase Hexion Specialty Chemicals' epoxy resins business, which would have given Spolchemie manufacturing assets in Germany and the U.S. Hexion needed to sell the operations to attain antitrust clearance for its purchase of Huntsman Corp. However, when the Huntsman acquisition fell through in 2009, so did the sale to Spolchemie.