Michelman Acquires Ecronova Polymer
Michelman has acquired Recklinghausen,
Germany-based Ecronova Polymer
GmbH, a manufacturer of water-based
polymers used in the production of paints
and lacquers. The purchase includes all
assets, technology and manufacturing facilities. The name Ecronova Polymer will
continue to be used for business operations and all current Ecronova Polymer
products will remain unchanged in name
and formulation.
The company’s managing directors,
Peter Montag and Anton Solich, owned
Ecronova Polymer and funds managed
by Aheim Capital, a private equity investment firm. Montag and Solich will
continue in their roles as managing directors and will be joined by Jean-Marc
Verhaeghe, currently Michelman’s managing director, EMEA.
Verhaeghe will assume overall operational responsibilities. Ecronova Polymer’s
customers will see no interruption in their
service and will continue to work with
their current Ecronova contacts.
With the acquisition, Michelman gains
a physical presence in Germany and increases its European footprint. The company now has product development and
manufacturing facilities in the Belgium/
Luxembourg region, Germany, the U.S.
and Singapore, plus a new technical service center in Shanghai serving the China
and greater Asia-Pacific market.
Clariant Registers 255
Chemicals with EU
Clariant recently completed Phase 2
of REACH (Registration, Evaluation,
Authorisation and Restriction of
Chemicals) with the registration of 255
different chemical substances. These include 155 dossiers submitted by Clariant
as the “lead registrant,” amounting to
5. 3 percent of all substances registered
for the first time in the EU in this second
REACH phase.
Phase 2 involved 66 percent more
chemicals produced in the EU and
imported into the EU by Clariant in
comparison to REACH 1. During the
first phase, completed back in November
2010, the specialty chemicals firm recorded a total of 152 chemicals with a
quantity of more than 1000 tons per year.
Clariant has registered chemical substances that are produced in or imported
to the countries of the European Union
with volumes of between 100 and 1,000
tons per year.
With its broad product portfolio,
Clariant is one of the “lead registrants”
at the European Chemicals Agency
(ECHA). Just under ten percent of all
substances registered across the EU are
on the registration list of the Swiss company. Given the size of the business units,
the majority of the registered substances
came from Care Chemicals (Business
Unit Industrial and Consumer Care) as
well as Plastics and Coatings (Business
Unit Pigments).
Alongside the challenges of evaluating and authorizing, in the third phase of
REACH that is currently underway, all
of the remaining chemical substances of
more than one ton per year must be registered by 2018. For Clariant this means
yet another significant increase in the size
of the dossier to be submitted.
Al-Sorayai Group, Al-
Jazeera Paints to Build
Calcium Carbonate Plant
Al-Sorayai Group has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with
Al-Jazeera Paints to establish a factory project for the production of calcium carbonate.
The MoU focuses on the mutual interest of the two companies to build a
factory for the manufacture of calcium
carbonate and its derivatives as well as
other minerals supported with the latest technology and the highest international standards. The factory will be
located in Jeddah under a limited liability company.
Saleh Bin Nasser Al-Sorayai, managing
director, on behalf of Al-Sorayai Group,
and Abdullah Bin Saud Al-Rumaih, director general, on behalf of Al-Jazeera
Paints, signed the accord.
Building the factory will take approximately 12 to 13 months and operation
will begin in the third quarter of 2014.
Many industrial products rely on calcium
carbonate, which is consumed by Al-Sorayai Group and Al-Jazeera Paints.
Sabuco Receives
Government Approval
to Build World’s Largest
Butanol Plant
Saudi Butanol Co. has received Saudi
Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s
approval for construction of the world’s
largest butanol plant in Jubail Industrial
Complex, Saudi Arabia.
Sabuco is a joint venture of three
leading Saudi petrochemical compa-nies-Saudi Basic Industries Corp. affiliate Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co.; the
Sadara Chemical Co. venture of Saudi
Aramco and Dow Chemical Co.; and
Saudi Acrylic Acid Co. (SAAC), which is
owned by Tasnee & Sahara Olefins Co.
(TSOC), an affiliate of Tasnee Co. and
Sahara Petrochemicals Co. A celebration
to mark the official formation of Sabuco
was held in Riyadh recently by the three
project partners.
The venture is investing approximatley $517-million to build a plant to produce 330,000 tons per year of n-butanol
and 11,000 tons per yera of iso-butanol.
Scheduled to go on stream in 2015, the plant
will be located at Tasnee’s petrochemical
complex in Jubail and operated by Tasnee.
The partners are in the process of
finalizing agreements on several key
elements, including financing, tolling,
operations and maintenance, engineering and procurement, construction,
project management consulting and
technology licensing. The plant will
support the development and growth
