Industry News
ing coatings, inks, plastics and cosmetics. When the transaction is completed, the business, including
Holliday’s manufacturing and R&D
headquarters in Comines, France,
will become part of Rockwood Color
Pigments. In 2007 Holliday Pigments
posted EBITDA of € 6.0 million and
sales of € 34. 7 million.
“The addition of Holliday Pigments
is an excellent fit for us,” said Seifi
Ghasemi, Rockwood’s chairman and
CEO. “It is a business with strong
technical leadership and excellent
growth prospects in diverse markets.
This is an excellent bolt-on acquisition for Rockwood and an important
addition to the Rockwood Color
Pigments product line.”
The transaction is subject to regulatory clearances. It is expected to be
completed during the third quarter.
SCG-DOW GROUP BREAKS GROUND
ON PROPYLENE OXIDE PLANT
The SCG-Dow Group, a joint venture
between Dow and The Siam Cement
Group (SCG), has broken ground on
a propylene oxide (PO) facility in
Thailand. The world-scale plant,
located within the Asia Industrial
Estates site near Map Ta Phut, will
have capacity of 390 kilotons per
year of propylene oxide via the
hydrogen peroxide to propylene oxide
(HPPO) technology jointly developed
by Dow and BASF. The POplant,
which will also include propylene
glycol manufacturing, is expected to
come online in 2011.
GELEST DOUBLES
PRODUCTION CAPACITY
Gelest Inc. recently completed the
final phase of a multi-year project to
double the capacity of its Morrisville,
PA headquarters and product plant.
The expansion was necessitated by
the increased demand for specialty
silane and metal organic molecules
used in variety of applications.
The plant expansion more than
doubles reactor capacity and adds
new capability in ultra high viscosity
polymerization and micro-particle
size modification. Quality control and
bulk storage have also been expanded
to meet the new capacity. The expansion increases the size of the plant to
55,000 square feet, leaving space for
additional expansion in the future.
IN BRIEF
Dow Chemical recently celebrated
the start-up of a new phenolic ethers
plant in Freeport, TX...Oxea has
signed an agreement to form a joint
venture with Shenyang Zhangming to
produce carboxylic acids in
China...Sartomer’s interactive corporate overview is available online at
www.sartomer.com/corporateoverview/
PRICING CHANGES
BASF: Effective immediately—15-20%
increase for triphenylphosphine and 2-mer-
captoethanol; July 1—$0.12/dry lb.
increase for all Butofan medium solids
styrene-butadiene latex products and
Styrofan and Styronal styrene-butadiene
latex products sold in the U.S. and Canada.
Cytec: effective immediately—up to 20%
increase for its Aerosol surfactants products;
6% increase for its Cylink monomer range of
cross-linking products; up tp 20% increase
for PTZ Phenothiazine; 10% increase for its
Superfloc resin amine products; July 15—
$0.07/lb. increase on all Crylcoat powder
coating resins in North America.
Dianal America: July 14—7-12%
increase on grades of acrylic and
styrene/acrylic polymers.
Dow: July 1—$220/MT increase for a variety of acrylic acid and esters; $0.05/lb.
increase for liquids and $0.10/lb. increase
for powders for all grades of Versene chelating agents.
Eliokem: Aug. 4—up to 5% increase for its
entire range of coatings resins.
Evonik: Effective immediately—up to 25%
increase for its Degalan coatings resins and
index.htm and can be downloaded as a
PDF...Evonik Industries has
expanded the silica capacity to
40,000 tons per year at its joint venture Egesil AS in Adapazari, near
Izmit, Turkey...Dow has declared
force majeure for several Versene
chelant products...Sun Chemical’s
consulting division has launched
partnerships with Environ, Radius
Solutions and SBTI...Michelman
has acquired Raleigh, NC-based
Hydrosize Technologies, Inc., a manufacturer of a variety of coatings
including sizings, film formers, fixatives, binders as well as resins for
the coatings and composite industries...PolyOne Corp., a manufacturer of polymers, has renamed the
company’s vinyl business segment,
Geon Performance Polymers. CW
PVC modifier products.
Huber: July 1—8-12% increase for its spe-
cialty grade silica and silicates; 5-10%
increase for its industrial calcium carbonate
grades.
Oxea: July 1—$0.05/lb. increase in North
America, $110/MT increase in South and
Central America, Asia, Africa and the Middle
East for i/n butyl acetate, n-propyl acetate
and n-propanol; €50/MT for i/n butyl
acetate, EU150/MT increase n-propyl acetate
and €75/MT increase for n-propanol in
Europe.
Nuplex Resins: July 7—5-11% increase
for all solvent- and waterborne products in
North America.
Sartomer: July 1—6-12% increase for its
acrylate and methacrylate monomers and
oligomers in the Americas.
Tronox: July 1—$0.06/lb. increase for all
Tronox titanium dioxide grades sold in North
America; Aug. 1—$200/per ton increase for
all titanium dioxide grades in Eastern
Europe, Africa and the Middle East; $150/ton
increase for all titanium dioxide grades in
the Asia-Pacific region.
Troy: July 1—up to 20% increase on
preservatives and additives.
