SNPE Chemicals Opens Phosgene Plant at Dow's Complex in Texas

20 March 2000 00:00  [Source: ICB Americas]

Further underlining its aggressive push into the US fine chemicals arena, Groupe SNPE's SNPE Chemicals Inc. opened its state-of-the-art phosgene derivatives plant in LaPorte, Tex., last week. The unit is located at Dow Chemical Company's site and has two production lines, one for chloroformates and carbonates and the other for acid chlorides. Its annual capacity stands at 10,000 metric tons of product.

Financed by SNPE, the unit was engineered and constructed by Dow and will be managed and run by Dow's contract manufacturing services. SNPE's chairman Jean Faure calls the collaboration with Dow a "win-win situation for two strong companies and a joint project in the best sense of the word."

After initial tests, already in progress, the site should be fully operational by May. Dow will provide the phosgene raw material from its site via a pipeline. Byproduct hydrochloric acid will also be handled by Dow.

Initial plans call for the production of dimethylcarbonate. The plant is designed for multiproduct batch operation, and it will ultimately produce about 13 derivatives. Bernard Fontana, vice-president for Groupe SNPE's North American operations, notes that production is already sold out for the rest of the year. The new unit's annual sales could top $20 million.

Costing an estimated $20 million, the LaPorte phosgene derivatives unit represents a significant portion of SNPE's recent $80 million foray into the US market. The move is an extension of the company's aggressive growth strategy, which is reflected by several recent fine chemicals acquisitions in the US (related story, page 7).

Building on its key technologies in hydrogenation, phosgenation and nitration, SNPE expects to become one of the 10 largest fine chemicals suppliers to the life sciences sector.

Last year, SNPE acquired VanDeMark Chemical Company in Lockport, N.Y., the only US merchant producer of phosgene and derivatives, primarily for pharmaceutical applications. That unit's current capacity is about 7,000 tons. Within the next two years, VanDeMark will be upgrading to cGMP. Its annual sales are projected to hit $40 million by 2004, up from $28 million in 1998. Also last year, SNPE bought San Diego-based Multiple Peptide Systems Inc., which specializes in solid-phase peptide synthesis.

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