Business Roundup

Indorama Ventures has agreed to acquire Avgol Industries, an Israeli maker of nonwoven materials for diapers, feminine hygiene products, and adult incontinence products. The deal values Avgol at more than $300 million.

Inovyn has shut down its mercury cell chlor-alkali plant in Stenungsund, ­Sweden, in line with European regulations banning such technology. The firm is ­converting the site to membrane technology, which doesn’t use mercury.

Tronox will acquire a titanium slag smelter in Jizan, Saudi Arabia, from a joint venture between Saudi Arabian chemical maker Tasnee and its titanium dioxide arm Cristal. The transaction for the facility, which makes feedstock for TiO₂ pigment, will help advance Tronox’s merger with Cristal.

DSM is expanding capacity for Dyneema UD, a uni­directional laminate based on ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene and used in antiballistic vests. The company will carry out the 20% boost at its plants in Heerlen, the Netherlands, and Greenville, N.C. It will also incrementally expand Dyneema fiber capacity.

BASF and ExxonMobil are forming an alliance to develop solvents and process technologies used in natural gas treatment and oil refining. BASF will market and license the technologies.

Bin2Barrel, a Dutch start-up, has started building a plant at the Port of Amsterdam to convert 35,000 metric tons per year of nonrecyclable plastic waste into 30 million L of diesel for the shipping industry. Costing $33 million, the plant will use Bin2Barrel’s pyrolysis technology.

Zymergen, a California-based developer of microbially derived materials, has hired the Science, Technology & Research Institute of Delaware. STRIDE will advance Zymergen building blocks in applications such as films, coatings, and adhesives.

CellCentric has raised $26 million to take its oncology drug candidate CCS1477 into clinical trials. The compound is a small-molecule inhibitor of two histone acetyltransferase proteins, p300 and CBP, that are involved in prostate cancer.