Specialty Chemical Markets Were Spotty

Custom and specialty chemical markets were spotty throughout the year.

At the Chemspec Europe custom chemicals show in Munich, Nigel L. Uttley of Enigma Marketing Research attributed agrochemical growth to “the usual culprit of growing global population and increasing sophistication of eating habits and eating more meat.”

Slow demand for carbon fibers led to the planned acquisition of Zoltek by Japan’s Toray Industries. The deal will give Toray, which sells mostly aerospace-grade fiber, a stake in the industrial carbon fiber business, where it sees potential for growth.

Other carbon fiber makers took steps to advance use of their materials. SGL Group and Samsung, for instance, formed a joint venture to develop new industrial and electronic applications for carbon fiber composites.

With helium hard to get, scientific instrument users tried to conserve and recycle supplies. Others looked to alternative sample carrier gases such as hydrogen for their gas chromatography and mass spectrometry machines.

A helium supply crisis was averted when President Barack Obama signed a bill allowing the Federal Helium Reserve to continue operating. The reserve supplies 42% of helium used in the U.S. and 30% worldwide. New capacity from the start-up of a big new helium plant in Qatar is expected to ease the ongoing shortage of the inert element.

Refrigerant makers Honeywell and DuPont ran into some flack when German automakers decided to forgo deploying a new fluorine-based refrigerant in the air-conditioning systems of their future cars in favor of carbon dioxide. The German carmakers were set to start using hydrofluoroolefin-1234yf, which has a lower global-warming potential than the current material. But in September, Daimler released tests that it said proves the new refrigerant could cause a fire in a collision.