Business briefing for June 23

Trade group expects muted chemical growth

The US chemical industry was rebounding at the beginning of 2025, but uncertainty—largely over tariff policies—has soured the outlook for the full year, according to a midyear outlook from the American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade group. “Pervasive uncertainty about trade policy and its potential impact has slowed economic activity in the U.S. and abroad,” the ACC says. “The lack of clarity makes it difficult for firms to make decisions, and as a result, orders, investment and hiring have been delayed as many firms adopt a ‘wait and see’ position.” The council projects that US chemical industry output will increase by 0.3% in 2025; the ACC’s last forecast, released in December, was 1.9% growth. In 2024, US chemical production rose only 0.4%. The ACC expects global chemical production to expand by 1.9% in 2025, a slowdown from the 4.0% increase posted in 2024.—ALEX TULLO

Teknor Apex buys biobased maker Danimer

The plastics formulation company Teknor Apex has purchased the biobased polymer producer Danimer Scientific, which declared bankruptcy in March. Danimer opened a plant in Winchester, Kentucky, in 2020 that makes the biodegradable polymer polyhydroxyalkanoate via a fermentation process. It also compounds polylactic acid polymers. Teknor plans to operate Danimer as a stand-alone business.—ALEX TULLO

Tosoh expanding chloroprene rubber

The Japanese specialty materials company Tosoh plans to build a $520 million chloroprene rubber plant at its complex in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. The new facility will expand Tosoh’s capacity by 22,000 metric tons per year. Chloroprene rubber is used in automotive belts and hoses, industrial components, medical gloves, and other applications. Another company, Denka, recently said it would cease production at a chloroprene rubber plant in Louisiana and supply the US from Japan. Tosoh plans to begin construction in 2027 and expects to complete the project in 2030.—ALEX TULLO

Ineos’ Antwerp ethylene project is 70% complete

Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever toured the construction of Ineos’s Project ONE ethylene cracker project in Antwerp earlier this month. The $4 billion project is 70% complete, Ineos says, with major components like furnaces already installed. It is expected to come on line in early 2027. The project is Europe’s first of its kind in a generation. “And that’s the problem,” Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe says in a statement. “While the rest of the world is building over 20 new crackers, Europe is sleepwalking into industrial decline. High energy costs, painful permitting, and punitive carbon taxes are killing investment.” Separately, Ineos says it is closing a phenol plant in Gladbeck, Germany.—ALEX TULLO

Magrathea to make magnesium via electrolysis

Magrathea has developed an electrolyzer that separates magnesium—a light metal that can be used to reduce the weight of vehicles—from magnesium chloride. Most magnesium is currently produced at high-temperature smelters in China. Magrathea says its electrolysis process will have a smaller carbon footprint. US Magnesium produced magnesium via electrolysis at a site in Utah but stopped production in 2022. In February, an unnamed carmaker agreed to buy a portion of the output from Magrathea's future demonstration plant.—MATT BLOIS

New Iridium raises funds for biobased acetates

The biobased chemical start-up New Iridium has raised $2.65 million in seed funding led by Radicle Growth, a venture capital firm focused on food and agriculture sciences. New Iridium is commercializing an industrial-scale biobased route to acetic acid and ethyl acetate, commodity chemicals that are normally made from petrochemical methanol. New Iridium’s process catalytically oxidizes ethanol. The firm says it will use the funds to accelerate the construction of a pilot facility with a capacity of 50 metric tons per year. The start-up has received support—including in the recent fundraising—from the US corn industry, which has been backing multiple initiatives to develop ethanol as a feedstock for chemical production. New Iridium is also working on processes that use captured CO₂ as a starting material for chemical building blocks including acrylic acid and methoxyacetic acid.—CRAIG BETTENHAUSEN

Braskem to divest stake in Dutch recycler

The Brazilian chemical maker Braskem says it plans to divest its share of Upsyde, its mechanical recycling joint venture in the Netherlands with Terra Circular. The company turns postconsumer plastics into road plates and pallets. Braskem says it is focusing on its core activity of producing chemicals and plastics because of the chemical industry downturn and the reduction of economic activity in Europe. The company says it is still interested in sustainable plastics. It is expanding production of biobased polymers in Brazil and is working on a project to make biobased ethylene in Thailand.—ALEX TULLO

OCOchem starts up carbon dioxide to formate pilot

OCOchem has started up a pilot plant that can electrochemically convert carbon dioxide and water into hydrogen formate and potassium formate at a rate of 60 metric tons (t) per year. The firm says that between consuming captured CO₂ and displacing fossil fuel feedstocks, each metric ton of product reduces net greenhouses gas emissions by the equivalent of 7.5 t of CO₂. OCOchem fabricated the unit off site and says on-site assembly and commissioning took only 6 weeks. Formic acid and its derivatives are used in agriculture, metallurgy, and tanning, and as a chemical building block for more-complex molecules.—CRAIG BETTENHAUSEN

National Resilience to close 6 sites

National Resilience, a US contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) founded in 2020 to protect pharmaceutical companies from supply chain disruption, is consolidating operations. The company is shuttering its “underutilized sites” because the firm’s “capacity expansion has outpaced industry demand,” CEO William S Marth says in a letter to Resilience shareholders. The consolidation will include the closure of six sites: three in Massachusetts, one in San Diego, one in Fremont, California, and one in Alachua, Florida. The CDMO has raised over $2 billion in funding since its launch.—AAYUSHI PRATAP

BMS-owned RayzeBio licenses Philochem asset for $350 million up front

Radiopharmaceutical company RayzeBio, a subsidiary of Bristol Myers Squibb, will license a therapeutic and diagnostic asset for prostate cancer from Swiss firm Philochem for $350 million up front. OncoACP3 is a small-molecule ligand that targets acid phosphatase 3 (ACP3). When conjugated to ¹⁷⁷Lu or ²²⁵Ac, two of the most common isotopes used for radiopharmaceuticals, the ligand is targeted to kill metastatic prostate cancer cells; conjugated to ¹⁸F or ⁶⁸Ga, it is intended to be a radiotracer for the detection of metastatic prostate cancer.—LAURA HOWES

Novo Nordisk taps start-up for small-molecule weight-loss collaboration

Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk has hired the start-up Deep Apple Therapeutics to develop small molecules as its next weight-loss play. Novo will pay Deep Apple up to $812 million, including an unspecified up-front amount and milestone payments, to identify and begin developing drug candidates that go after a new, nonincretin G protein–coupled receptor. Deep Apple will be responsible for discovery and early-stage research, and Novo will oversee human testing and commercial efforts.—ROWAN WALRATH

AstraZeneca partners with China's CSPC for AI-based drug development

AstraZeneca has entered a partnership with CSPC Pharmaceuticals to develop new oral treatments for chronic disease. CSPC, based in China, will take the lead on research using its artificial intelligence–powered platform, which matches existing compounds to binding sites on target proteins. AstraZeneca will pay CSPC $110 million up front, with the possibility of up to $1.62 billion in development milestone payments, up to $3.6 billion in sales milestone payments, and further single-digit royalties based on annual net sales of any products. AstraZeneca has partnered with CSPC before: in October 2024, it licensed a small-molecule heart drug for $100 million up front.—SARAH BRANER

BUSINESS ROUNDUP

Braskem and Ardent Process Technologies have completed their 5-year development program for a membrane-based olefin-paraffin separation technology. Braskem says it is already conducting the engineering for the first commercial deployment of the technology.

Kemira will spend $1.6 million to expand its production capacity for sodium borohydride at its site in Äetsä, Finland. The chemical is used as a reducing agent in pharmaceutical manufacturing and other synthetic processes.

Stepan has expanded its total capacity for α-olefin sulfonates—surfactants used in cleaning, personal care, and assorted industrial applications—by 25%. The investments were spread across Stepan sites in Illinois, California, and Georgia.

Corteva has struck a deal with FMC to sell fungicides made with fluindapyr. In 2020, FMC purchased the intellectual property behind fluindapyr from Isagro, the firm that discovered the ingredient.

Wanhua Chemical Battery Technology will supply lithium iron phosphate (LFP), polyvinylidene fluoride, and other battery materials to ElevenEs’ LFP battery factory in Serbia. Wanhua says the move strengthens the Chinese firm’s foothold in Europe.

GL Chemtec, a Canadian drug services firm, says its kilo-scale production in Oakville, Ontario, is fully operational. The company says the site will help it meet rising demand from the pharmaceutical industry for materials used in human clinical trials.

Carbogen Amcis, a Swiss contract development and manufacturing organization, and an unnamed Japanese customer have jointly invested $30 million to ramp up production of pharmaceutical ingredients. The funds will be used to expand Carbogen’s manufacturing infrastructure in Aarau and Neuland, Switzerland.

BASF will supply aluminum chloride to a Solvay plant near Linne, the Netherlands, that produces anthraquinone, a precursor for hydrogen peroxide. Solvay says the carbon footprint of BASF’s aluminum chloride is 50% lower than that of competitors in India.