Industry News
BASF repositions global pigments business
BASF is repositioning its global pigments business. Following the Ciba
acquisition, the chemical company
now has the broadest product portfolio
worldwide. After an in-depth analysis
of the combined operations, the company will eliminate specific products
and adapt production capacities to
market developments. As a consequence, approximately 500 of the current 2,900 jobs in the global pigment
production will be eliminated. The
measures, which mainly concern azo
pigments and phthalocyanines, will
begin this year and are expected to be
completed by 2013. BASF currently
operates 22 production sites for pigments worldwide.
“At six sites in North and South
America as well as in Europe we will
close individual production plants. At
six other sites in Asia and Europe, we
will expand existing capacities or
make better use of them,” said Markus
Kramer, president of BASF’s dispersions and pigments division.
In Europe, approximately 320 positions will be cut by 2013. This will
PRICING CHANGES
Ashland Performance Materials: May
1–€70-€100/ton increase for its complete
portfolio of resins and gelcoats produced and
sold in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Arkema: Effective immediately–€150/ton
increase for methyl isobutyl ketone, diacetone
alcohol, hexyl glycol and isophorone solvents
in Europe.
Dow: May 1–$300/MT increase for liquid,
solid, solid solution epoxy resins, standard
brominated epoxy resins and other epoxy products (including specialty epoxy resins) in Asia
Pacific (excluding Japan).
Hexion: May 1–up to $0.10/lb. increase for
mainly affect the sites in Paisley,
Great Britain, and in Grenzach,
Germany. Approximately 90 positions
will be cut at the South American site
in Guaratinguetá, Brazil. The cuts at
the North American sites in Louisville,
KY, and Elyria, OH, will total about 80
positions.
“By streamlining our portfolio we
will mainly eliminate overlaps within
our combined portfolio. At the same
time we are reducing overcapacities,”
said Andreas Türk, group vice president of the BASF unit global restructuring management pigments. “All
sites that are not directly involved in
the production consolidation process
will undergo regular checks establishing optimization potential.”
EVONIK ACQUIRES SPECIALTY
ESTERS BUSINESS FROM ARKEMA
Evonik Industries has acquired the
business of methacrylate specialty
esters from Arkema. The acqusition
includes the products 2-ethylhexyl
methacrylate (2-EMHA), dimethy-laminoethyl methacrylate (MADAME)
Epon liquid epoxy resins and Epon solid epoxy
resins in the Americas.
Lanxess: Effective immediately–up to
€100/ton increase for iron oxide pigments
worldwide.
DISTRIBUTOR APPOINTMENTS
Celanese Emulsion Polymers has appointed Omya as its distributor for its Celvolit emulsions in the Middle East.
Nubiola has expanded its distribution agreement with Keyser and Mackay to distribute its
products, including the Nubirox range to now
include Belgium, The Netherlands, Poland,
France, Germany and Switzerland.
and n- and i-butyl methacrylate (
n-BUMA and i-BUMA). These
monomers are mainly used for the production of paint and coatings, as well
as chemicals for water treatment and
plastic additives. The products will be
integrated into the Visiomer range for
methacrylate monomers, which comprises more than 50 monomers. The
product Visiomer DMAEMA will be
marketed under the name Visiomer
MADAME in the future.
IN BRIEF
Dow Chemical has ended the force
majeure for phenol in the
Americas...Hexion Specialty
Chemicals and Shanxi Sanwei
Group have a formed a JV, Sanwei
Hexion Chemicals Ltd., to produce
VeoVa monomer in Shanxi Province,
China...Reichhold has re-launched
its web site ( www.reichhold.com) to
include a number of enhanced fea-tures...Perstorp has announced
that it is ahead of target to double
production capacity of its Capa
caprolactones range at its
Warrington, UK site...BASF will
transfer production of azo pigments
from its Louisville, KY site to
Paisley, Great Britain and Ulsan,
Korea beginning in 2011...BASF
will also transfer production of complex inorganic color (CICP) pigments from its Elyria, OH site to
Besigheim, Germany. As a result, all
pigment production at Elyria will be
eliminated, and pigment manufacturing at the facility will be closed
down by 2012. BASF’s other operations based in Elyria are unaffected
by this announcement...AkzoNobel
has expanded its monochloroacetic
acid (MCA) production capacity to
60,000 metric tons per year at its
Taixing, China site. CW
