COMPANIES & MARKETS

Already operates propylene oxide plant

Belgium. Germany's Basf SE and U.S.-based Dow Chemical Company announced that the world's largest commercial-scale propylene oxide (PO) plant and the first based on the innovative hydrogen peroxide-to-propylene oxide (HPPO) technology developed by both companies has completed its launch phase and is operating steadily.

This HPPO complex, with a capacity of 300,000 metric tons of PO per year, located at the Basf site in Antwerp, Belgium, provides a reduction in wastewater and low energy use. PO is a base ingredient for the polyurethane industry.

In 2003, Dow and Basf began their joint research program to develop and commercialize HPPO technology. This joint venture will allow the two companies to combine their innovative strength and commercialize the technology more quickly.

Source: Quiminet

Dow Chemical and Rohm & Haas Agree to Merger

USA The chemical multinationals Dow Chemical and Rohm & Haas reached an agreement to avoid passing through the courts and for which the former will pay about US $ 15,000 million to take over the second, as they had agreed last July, reported the EFE agency.

Both U.S. companies reported that they decided to maintain the purchase price they announced last year and that established the payment of US $ 78 per share.

Rohm & Hass' two largest shareholders — the Haas family and paulson investment fund — will buy $2.5 billion in Dow Chemical stock, while the Hass family fund will invest another $500 million in options.

With these modifications, agreed shortly before the deadline set by a Delaware judge at the request of Rohm & Hass, it is intended to facilitate the financing of the operation by the firm based in Midland (Michigan) and put an end to the legal dispute.

Rohm & Haas sued Dow Chemical because at the beginning of the year the latter had not closed the purchase agreement announced months earlier, since it unilaterally suspended it due to the economic crisis and claiming that it was not the time to undertake an acquisition of such magnitude.

Basf sells powder coatings segment

Italy. The multinational Basf Coatings will sell its powder business for applications in household appliances, heating and pipe coating to the Italian company Arsonsisi S.p.A., the powder coatings brand of Junghanns Group. The transaction, which will take effect from the first of April, covers the technology, customer list and the powder coatings plant in Verbania (northwest Italy), which currently employs 63 people.

According to an official statement, customers who currently purchase both technologies in liquid and powder will now be jointly supplied by Basf and Arsonsisi during the transition phase. Basf will continue to strengthen its liquid coatings business for industrial applications.

The agreement with Arsonsisi does not include powder coatings for light and commercial transport vehicles. Customers in this segment will continue to be served by Basf with products of its own technology produced by Arsonsisi under the agreement quota. The marketing of Relius powder coatings will not be affected by the agreement.

Rodhia maintained results in 2008

Brazil. The chemical supplier Rhodia announced that in the Brazilian market during 2008 net revenues of US$1,199 million were obtained. The results are no further different from those obtained in 2007, as reported in a press release.

The exports of the company based in that South American country amounted to US $ 300 million, evidencing a decrease compared to 2007, when US $ 330 million were reported. The markets of North America, Asia and Europe were the ones that reported the highest growth.

Solvents were the products with the best sales results, followed by plastics and phenols.

The company's overall revenue for the previous year was $6 billion, although net income was down 18%. EBITDA also decreased 12%.

The company's CEO, Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, said: "We are implementing new structural cost reduction measures to save €150 million by 2011. This will improve our competitive position."

They are looking for self-cleaning coatings

Spain. The Institute of Ceramic Technology of Spain, ITC announced that it is advancing a project aimed at developing photocatalytic coatings that applied on different types of substrates, can give rise to surfaces with self-cleaning capacity. The research, in this case, focuses on materials that will be given an outdoor use.

The goal is to generate surfaces capable of cleaning themselves with the action of sunlight and ambient humidity, using photocatalytic and hydrophilic coatings made of titanium dioxide nanoparticles.

The application would be used in coatings for materials with exterior uses such as tiles and ceramic tiles, natural stone and wood.

The incorporation of nanostructured materials will allow to obtain coatings that in addition to protecting against solar radiation, humidity, fungi, insects, and other biological colonies, can contribute to destroy the organic matter that is deposited on the surface, causing the rapid deterioration of it.