Specialities roundup

11 April 2005 00:01  [Source: ACN]

Rhodia has announced plans to invest US$30m-35m in its first diphenols plant in China with a total capacity of 12 000 tonne/year. The new plant near Shanghai will produce catechol and hydroquinone. It is scheduled to come onstream in early 2007. The company has two existing diphenols plants: one in Saint-Fons near Lyon, France, and one in Baton Rouge in Louisiana, US.

Monsanto will sell its Enviro-Chem subsidiary that includes Roundup herbicide to the unit’s managers, the agrochemicals giant said in a statement. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close by the end of fiscal 2005.

Solvay is to start up production at its 100 000 tonne/year sodium bicarbonate plant in Bernburg, Germany, at the end of the year. A company spokesman said it had invested Euro16m (US$20.7m) in the facility, which would increase Solvay’s total European sodium bicarbonate production to 535 000 tonne/year.

Chinese epichlorohydrin (ECH) prices for drummed lots increased by US$30-50/tonne last week to US$1600-1630/tonne cfr China Main Port, and could head higher in the coming weeks, after the authorities imposed restrictions on Russian imports after an accident, market sources said. They added that China’s largest ECH producer, Qilu Petrochemical, had increased ex-works prices by as much as Rmb1000 (US$120)/tonne to Rmb15 800/tonne last week amid tight supply.

Polymer Group Inc (PGI) said it would build a spunmelt manufacturing plant in Suzhou, China, and add advanced chemical bonding technology at its facility in Nanhai. It said construction of the Suzhou facility was expected to begin during the second quarter of 2005, with commercial production scheduled for mid-2006.

DuPont has acquired a majority interest in Magellan to continue development of M5, a fibre used in ballistics and fire protection, the companies announced last week. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Syngenta will issue at least Euro500m of new debt through a long-term Euro-denominated Eurobond, a company spokesman said. The benchmark-sized issue will have a maturity of at least 15 years and will be partly used to bolster the company’s major pension funds, which were 85% funded at the end of 2004.

Sasol is developing bioethanol capability at its synthetic ethanol site at Herne in Germany. The company is converting a mothballed 60 000 tonne/year ethanol distillation plant for the upgrading of bioethanol to fuel-grade ethanol, which is due to operate from 1 May.

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