Business Concentrates FINANCE
DowDuPont leads a strong third quarter Huntsman’s pigment and additives business, reduced Huntsman’s debt by nearly half and gave an assist to earnings, which soared 180% to $179 million. The Gulf storms briefly dented demand DowDuPont, which will ultimately for industrial catalysts at W. R. Grace, but split into separate agriculture, materials the company said overall science, and specialty Sales Earnings orders from refineries and products companies, 13.2% 18.7% plastics manufacturers Air Products updated investors on 23.0 14.2 DowDuPont pushed catalyst sales up post-merger plans. NotaCelanese 18.4 –5.5 6% for the quarter. In total, bly, it announced actions the firm reported a $4 milto achieve a previously Eastman 7.8 16.0 Chemical lion hurricane impact on promised $3 billion earnings. in cost cuts. Without W.R. Grace 6.2 14.0 Harvey also interrupted providing details, the Huntsman 18.5 180.0 Gulf operations at Eastcompany said the actions Corp. man Chemical. But strong will include procurement LyondellBasell 1.3 –6.7 demand for the company’s synergies, facilities conadditives, functional products, and intersolidations, plant shutdowns, and global mediates helped the firm raise earnings 16% workforce reductions. to $323 million. At Huntsman Corp., which had its Eastman CEO Mark Costa said the reown merger with Clariant canceled due sults are a “testament to our scale, vertical to pushback from Clariant shareholders, integration, and the tremendous capavolumes and prices increased for polyurebility and determination of the Eastman thane intermediates and materials used team.”—MELODY BOMGARDNER in electronics. The spin-off of Venator,
Robust demand helped U.S. industry shrug off hurricane impacts DowDuPont’s first earnings report as a combined company revealed higher, broad-based demand for chemicals that powered a hike in earnings for the third quarter compared to pro forma results for 2016. Other U.S. chemical firms also took advantage of the economy’s growth, bouncing back after a September disrupted by Hurricane Harvey on the Gulf Coast. Sales and prices at DowDuPont increased in several businesses, and both industrial demand and consumer markets got credit for the good-news quarter. Adjusted earnings were up 14% to $1.3 billion. The company saw double-digit sales gains for polyurethanes, chlor-alkali, and vinyl. Sales in the industrial intermediates and infrastructure business jumped 16%, while coatings ingredient sales grew 8%. Meanwhile, plastic packaging and other consumer-oriented businesses continued their strong gains.
BY THE NUMBERS
95 GW
The amount of photovoltaic capacity installed worldwide in 2017, up 30% from 2016, according to a forecast by Bernreuter Research, a polysilicon market tracker. China led the world in installations this year, with new capacity of 50 GW, followed by the U.S. and India. U.S. energy firms are stockpiling photovoltaic equipment for installation next year to avoid impending tariffs on imports from China, Bernreuter reports.
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | NOVEMBER 6, 2017
RESEARCH FUNDING
Chemours to move R&D jobs Chemours plans to move 330 research jobs now located at DuPont’s Experimental Station in Wilmington, Del., to the University of Delaware’s Science, Technology & Advanced Research Campus 15 miles away in Newark, Del. Chemours, the titanium dioxide and fluorochemicals maker that spun off from DuPont two years ago, struck a deal to build a 29,000-m2 innovation center on the school’s campus at a cost of $150 million. Plans are to complete the new facility by early 2020. Chemours’s decision to move a substantial number of research jobs from the Experimental Station adds to recent losses for the facility, where discoveries including Teflon fluoropolymers and Suva non-ozone-depleting refrigerants were made. Both products are part of Chemours today. Other discoveries made at the station include nylon and neoprene. The station took a hit early last year when DuPont eliminated about 200
Central R&D research positions. And in 2015 Axalta, DuPont’s former paint business, said it will move 190 researchers from Wilmington to Philadelphia. The paint maker plans to complete the shift next year. In an effort to reinvigorate the site, DuPont said earlier this year that it will invest $200 million to turn it into a research park. The improvements are intended to prepare the site to host DowDuPont businesses and provide a research setting for other businesses that today also include the pharmaceutical firm Incyte. As Chemours and Axalta prepare to leave Wilmington, DuPont has begun to host startup businesses there. In April it created the Delaware Innovation Space, which is already hosting three pharmaceutical startups and the Science Technology & Research Institute of Delaware, an organization of mostly ex-DuPont scientists willing to do contract chemistry research.—MARC REISCH
