Coatings World - April 2008

I ndustry News
Sartomer opens new plant in China

Sartomer Company has opened a new manufacturing plant in Nansha, in the Guangzhou province of China. The facility will manufacture specialty acrylate monomers and oligomers used as raw materials in products including paint, coatings, inks and adhesives. Sartomer will sell materials manufactured at the new plant to customers in Asia, Europe and the U.S.

“The Nansha project is Sartomer’s first major investment in China,” said Luigi Colantuoni, president of Sartomer. “We are proud that the production process used in China is extremely clean and environmentally friendly. It follows the same high environmental standards that are currently in place at other global sites in the U.S. and Europe.”

The entire facility models Sartomer’s plant in Chatham, VA. The new plant includes lab space, offices, conference rooms and features integrated computer-based technology for process monitoring and control. The site will employ approximately 100 people when fully staffed.

ELIOKEM ACQUIRES INDIAN
POLYMER BUSINESS
Eliokem has completed the acquisition of
the polymer division of Apra Industries
Ltd., India for $28 million. After the
acquisition Eliokem’s global revenues
will reach €200 million for a combined
capacity in excess of 100,000 tons of poly-
mer. The plant, located in the petrochem-
ical zone in the Western state of Gujarat,
adds to and complements Eliokem’s
offerings in nitrile polymers and poly-
blends styrene butadiene reinforcing
resins and latices for the rubber indus-
try. Eliokem India has 220 employees
with a main office in Mumbai and a man-
ufacturing plant and technology center
in Valia, Gujarat state. Eliokem India
had revenues of approximately $42 mil-
lion in 2007 with a growth rate 0f 30%
compared to the year before.

CLARIANT EXPANDS

CHINA JOINT VENTURE PROJECT Clariant International and Zhejiang Baihe Chemical Holding Group have announced plans to expand the Hangzhou Baihe Clariant Pigments Company Ltd. joint venture by investing in a world-scale plant for the production of quinacridone specialty organic pigments. The new plant will be built at the existing joint venture facility in Hang Zhou City, Zhejiang Province.

GOLDSCHMIDT CHANGES
NAME TO REAXIS
Goldschmidt Industrial Chemical Corp.,
formerly a subsidiary of Degussa AG,
now Evonik, recently announced a com-
pany name change to Reaxis Inc. Several
senior level managers acquired the
industrial chemicals division of Evonik
in a management buyout.

BUHLER AND AVEKA
FORM JOINT OPERATION
Buhler Inc. and Aveka Inc. have formed
a joint operation for a development and
demonstration laboratory, which will
offer North American customers in the
fields of wet grinding and dispersion
technology on-site support. Buhler will
make the complete product portfolio of
the grinding and dispersion business
unit available for test activities includ-
ing its new PML-2 universal laboratory
platform and its latest MicroMedia
micro-grinding-media technology for
nanogrinding applications. Aveka will
utilize this cooperation to make its
capabilities in particle measurement
techniques, process engineering, and
contract manufacturing accessible to
Buhler customers.

IN BRIEF

Cardolite has announced two capacity expansions as its China facility. The first is a doubling of capacity for cashew nut-

shell (CNSL) liquid distillation, and the other is the installation of two epoxy curing agent/diluent reactors...Arkema has been named a winner of the 2007 Nano 50 Awards for the development of its controlled architecture polymers technolo-gy...Greg Bocchi has announced his resignation from the position of executive director of The Powder Coating Institute (PCI)...Dow Corning will expand its Northeast Indiana operations for manufacturing silicone compounds...Clariant has transferred the production of its Coventry, RI-made products, high-performance pigments and related products, to its pigments and additives division plants in Germany, China and Mexico...Chemtura Corp. has acquired Baxenden Chemicals Limited owned by Croda International Plc...Dow Polyurethanes has broken ground on a major capacity expansion at its polyols plant in Terneuzen, the Netherlands. CW

PRICING CHANGES

BASF: April 3—$0.04/dry lb. for all Butofan medium solids styrene-butadiene latex products and Styrofan and Styronal styrene-butadiene latex products in the U.S. and Canada. Dow: March 1—$0.03-$0.08/lb. increase for Tergitol, Dowfax and Triton surfactants in North America.

DSM NeoResins: March 1—10% increase for solventborne resins in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Sun Chemical Performance Pigments: March 31—4-6% increase for classical azo reds, 5-7% increase for classical azo yellows, 5-8% increase for classical phthalo, 3-6% increase for high performance and 5-7% increase for pearlescent.