Business Concentrates MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
▸ W.R. Grace buys Albemarle catalyst unit W.R. Grace & Co. has agreed to acquire Albemarle’s polyolefin catalysts business for $416 million. Grace, which already claims to be the largest polyolefin catalyst supplier, says the deal will strengthen its position in single-site and metallocene catalysts for polyolefins and Ziegler-Natta catalysts for polyethylene. The deal includes plants in Baton Rouge, La., and Yeosu, South Korea, that employ 175 people in total. Albemarle chalked up the sale to “portfolio management.” Vertical Research analyst Kevin McCarthy suggests Albemarle will invest cash from the sale in its growing business in lithium compounds for batteries.—MARC REISCH
ENERGY STORAGE
▸ BASF and Toda add to cathode collaboration BASF Toda Battery Materials, a joint venture established in 2015 between BASF and Toda Kogyo, has tripled its capacity for nickel-based cathode materials at its site in Onoda, Japan. Majority-owned by BASF, the venture claims to now operate the world’s largest calcination facility for making high-nickel cathode materials. The two firms will next create a cathode materials joint venture in the U.S. Named BASF Toda America, it will include BASF and Toda cathode materials facilities in Elyria, Ohio, and Battle Creek, Mich., respectively.—ALEX SCOTT
PETROCHEMICALS
▸ Polypropylene plant advances in Alberta The management of Canadian hydrocarbon pipeline and processing firm Inter Pipeline has given the go-ahead to a $2.7 billion propane dehydrogenation and polypropylene complex to be built near Redwater, Alberta. The facility will have the capacity to turn propane into 525,000 metric tons per year of polypropylene. Given the abundance of propane in Alberta, the plant will be among the lowest-cost polypropylene plants in
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | JANUARY 1, 2018
Materia to sell catalyst unit Belgium-based catalysts giant Umicore has agreed to acquire Materia’s olefin metathesis catalyst business, including a portfolio of catalysts based on discoveries by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Robert Grubbs. The sale, for $27 million, follows Materia’s decision in October to license certain ruthenium-based olefin metathesis catalysts from Evonik Industries. Materia had lost a contentious battle with Evonik in U.S. federal court over which came first: patents based on work by Caltech’s Grubbs or Evonik’s patents based on work by Technical University of Munich chemist Wolfgang A. Herrmann. Umicore says it will supply the catalysts to makers of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and surfactants. Materia says it will now focus on its Proxima resin business. Based on dicyclopentadiene and comonomers polymerized using catalysts developed by Grubbs, the resins are designed as alternatives to epoxy, vinyl ester, and polyester resins used in oil and gas exploration, electronics, and composite applications. Umicore will supply catalysts for the resin business under a long-term agreement, Materia says.—MARC REISCH
North America, the firm claims. Construction is scheduled for completion in 2021. The project is receiving about $150 million in royalty credits from the government of Alberta.—ALEX TULLO
PEOPLE
▸ Brudermüller to succeed Bock at BASF Martin Brudermüller will become chairman of BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, on May 4, 2018. He will replace Kurt Bock, who has led the company since 2011. Bock will join BASF’s supervisory board in 2020 after a required cooling-off period. Brudermüller, who is Brudermüller now vice chairman and chief technology officer, joined BASF in 1988 in its ammonia laboratory.—
MICHAEL MCCOY
INORGANIC CHEMICALS
▸ AkzoNobel studies salt expansion AkzoNobel is studying plans to expand high-purity vacuum salt production by 25% at its Delfzijl, the Netherlands, site.
AkzoNobel may expand output of highpurity salt at this facility. Strong demand for salt used in dialysis solutions as well as from chlorine and caustic soda manufacturers is behind the study. The firm recently completed a pharmaceutical-grade salt expansion in Mariager, Denmark.—MARC REISCH
OUTSOURCING
▸ JSR continues push into contract research The Japanese chemical maker JSR has agreed to purchase the contract research firm Crown Bioscience International for about $400 million. Based in Taiwan, Crown offers patient-derived xenograft and animal models for multiple diseases. JSR expects Crown to have sales this year of about $90 million. JSR previously acquired the contract research and devel-
C R E D I T: BAS F ( M UG) ; A KZO N O BE L ( P LA N T )
POLYMERS
