NEWS OF THE WEEK
EUROPEAN FIRMS INVEST IN CHINA SPECIALTY CHEMICALS: Companies pursue local research and production
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Evonik Industries, Arkema, and BASF have announced new investments in chemical production and R&D in the country. Evonik will spend $135 million to build plants producing isophorone and isophorone diamine at its main Chinese site in Shanghai’s Xinzhuang district. Isophorone is used in paints and printing inks; its derivative isophorone diamine is used to harden epoxy-based goods such as wind turbines. Earlier this month, the German firm announced an investment of $135 million in a hydrogen peroxide plant in northeast China. Also in Shanghai, Evonik ARKEMA
A view of Arkema’s Changshu site.
NTICIPATING CONTINUED growth in China,
PRIORITIZING SCIENCE FUNDING BUDGET: House committee members
outline science funding they think the nation can do without
Congressional committees submitted letters recommending ways to reduce the federal deficit.
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EMBERS OF A key congressional science
committee believe the fiscal 2012 federal budget could be trimmed by over $1.5 billion through cuts to science agencies without undermining the role of science and innovation in the U.S.’s longterm economic growth. The conclusion comes in a detailed letter from 11 Republican members of the House of Representatives Science, Space & Technology Committee to members of Congress’ Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. This so-called supercommittee was assembled as part of last summer’s debt-ceiling deal between Congress and the White House. The letter advocates prioritizing “research and development programs WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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will invest $25 million to expand its R&D operations in the city. The company will construct a four-story building in the Xinzhuang district that will provide about 110,000 sq ft of additional space. Evonik says the expansion is the third since the R&D center opened in 2004. Arkema has inaugurated two new plants in Changshu, an industrial city in Jiangsu province about 75 miles from Shanghai. One facility produces fluorinated polymers and the other makes rheology additives. The addition of the plants has made Changshu Arkema’s largest production site worldwide. And Arkema plans to invest more in Changshu, said CEO Thierry Le Hénaff at an event at the facility. The company will build an R&D center there that will complement a research center in Kyoto, Japan. The French firm also plans to expand its plant in Changshu making the refrigerant hydrofluorocarbon-125. Meanwhile, at its large site in Nanjing, BASF will build a tert-butylamine plant with an annual production capacity of 10,000 metric tons. Chinese production of the amine, used to make tires and rubber chemicals, will help BASF meet its goal of locally producing 70% of what it sells in the Asia-Pacific region, the company says. Although China is a major exporter of a wide variety of consumer goods and other products, it remains a large net importer of chemicals. In 2010, the country recorded a chemical trade deficit of $18 billion, according to official statistics.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
that protect our national security and leadership, allow private investors and the marketplace to thrive without undue federal influence, and have the most potential for sustained long-term growth.” The letter identifies programs that should continue to be supported and others that could be cut. The letter calls for protecting basic research funding—including the budget for NSF and NIST core labs. But it urges cutting applied research programs that, Republicans argue, pick winners and losers in the marketplace. For example, the group proposes abolishing funding for the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy program. Favored by Democrats and the Obama Administration, ARPA-E supports transformative energy research projects. The science committee’s recommendations are “nothing new,” says Anthony Pitagno, assistant director for advocacy at ACS, which publishes C&EN. The suggestions, he notes, are consistent with the majority Republicans’ agenda. More than 30 congressional committees met the statutory deadline of Oct. 14 to submit budget reduction recommendations to the supercommittee, which has until Nov. 23 to formulate a plan that would cut $1.2 trillion in federal spending over the next decade. Congress then has until Dec. 23 to approve the plan. Otherwise, automatic, across-the-board spending cuts will kick in.—SUSAN MORRISSEY
OCTOBER 24, 2011
