Honeywell to exit nylon business

Honeywell plans to spin off its nylon 6 business into a separate, publicly traded company called AdvanSix. The maneuver, to occur by early 2017, will create a stand-alone producer of nylon 6 and precursors such as caprolactam and phenol with annual sales of about $1.3 billion. Honeywell is following the lead of other large U.S. chemical companies that have exited nylon manufacturing over the years. DuPont sold its nylon business to Koch Industries in 2004. Solutia sold its nylon 6,6 business to the private equity firm SK Capital Partners in 2009.