Business Roundup

AkzoNobel will spend more than $65 million to build powder coatings and decorative paint plants in Chengdu, China, by 2014 and 2015, respectively. The Dutch firm says the announcement of the projects follows its recent opening of a cellulose derivatives plant in Ningbo, China.

Eastman Chemical will spend $40 million over the next three years to expand a plant in Virginia’s Henry County that produces films for vehicle and building windows. The project is expected to add 25 jobs to the plant’s current workforce of about 500.

Kemira has agreed to purchase Vancouver-based Soto Industries, a privately owned producer of specialty chemicals for the pulp and paper industry. Soto supplies chemicals including silicones, polymers, and oil-based materials for the manufacture of pulp and paper and the treatment of effluent.

Air Liquide is buying an air separation plant from Altos Hornos de Mexico. The plant is on the steel company’s site in Monclova, in northern Mexico, where Air Liquide recently opened an air separation unit. Air Liquide plans to spend $60 million to build yet another air separation unit at the site.

Mitsubishi Rayon and Thai oil and chemical producer PTT will evaluate the possibility of building carbon fiber and composites facilities in Thailand. The partners expect that the main application for carbon fiber in Southeast Asia will be for fuel tanks used in natural-gas-powered vehicles.

Solazyme will supply the consumer goods company Unilever with at least 10,000 metric tons of proprietary algal oils developed by the two firms in a five-year partnership. The oils will be made at a sugar mill in Brazil that provides nutrients for the oil-producing algae. They will be delivered starting early next year.

Servier has offered to acquire the 49% it does not already own of the Hungarian generic drug firm Egis for about $483 million. Servier, a French drug company, has owned a majority stake in Egis, one of three generics firms in its fold, since 1995.

Evogene, an Israeli plant genomics firm, has filed papers with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of stock in the U.S. The company hopes to raise at least $60 million.

AstraZeneca has licensed three drug discovery programs from Waltham, Mass.-based X-Chem. The programs stem from a collaboration between the companies that began in May 2012. AstraZeneca has picked small molecules against oncology, respiratory and inflammation, and antibacterial targets.