Business Roundup

NewMarket, parent of the specialty chemical firms Afton Chemical and Ethyl, has agreed to purchase Ampac Intermediate Holdings for about $700 million. Ampac owns American Pacific, the leading US maker of ammonium perchlorate, which is used in solid-propellant rockets.

Trinseo will commission a plant during the first quarter of next year in Rho, Italy, that will depolymerize polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). The firm will use the output to make PMMA as part of a portfolio of recycled resins.

Draslovka is seeking a partner to build a chlorine and caustic soda plant at its site in Memphis, Tennessee. The Czech Republic–based firm acquired the site in its 2021 purchase of Chemours’s sodium cyanide business.

Yara International, the Norwegian fertilizer producer, has agreed to acquire the organic fertilizer business of Agribios Italiana for an undisclosed amount. Agribios produces about 60,000 metric tons of fertilizer annually—about 10% of Italy’s organic fertilizer market.

Kemira will work with Royal HaskoningDHV on pilot- and demonstration-scale projects in the Netherlands using Kemira’s process for extracting phosphorus from wastewater. Phosphorus can damage aquatic ecosystems but is also a valuable crop nutrient.

Circa Group has signed a letter of understanding with two Finnish firms to explore building a plant for its biobased solvent Cyrene (dihydrolevoglucosenone) at a former pulp mill in northern Finland. Circa is building a similar plant in France.

Tosoh plans to exit the sodium sulfate business by September 2024 because of a challenging business environment. The company has 24,000 metric tons per year of capacity for the salt at a site in Japan.

Photo Systems will begin producing Kodak-branded photo chemicals next year after signing a license agreement with Kodak Alaris. Sino Promise, a Chinese firm that was the previous licensee, decided to exit the photo chemical business earlier this year.