Brenntag acquires specialty chemical distributor Multisol Group

 With the acquisition of Multisol Group Limited, Brenntag further develops its market position in the distribution of specialty chemicals with focus on lubricants and base oils including mixing and blending capabilities. Multisol is a specialist in the distribution of lubricant additives and base oils in Europe and Africa working together with some of the world’s largest producers. For the year 2012, the company expects sales of GBP 238 million. The transaction provides a further expansion of our product portfolio into lubricant additives and base oils and, at the same time, increases Brenntag’s capabilities in mixing and blending.

Steven Holland, CEO of Brenntag, comments: “Multisol seamlessly fits into our strategic approach to enlarge our product focus of specialty chemicals including value added services in our core markets in the UK, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe and Africa.”

Multisol operates in various geographic end markets across Europe and Africa with nearly 170 employees, thus ideally complementing Brenntag’s existing distribution network and enlarging its formulation as well as mixing and blending capabilities. At the same time Brenntag expects high synergies from the transaction, both in cross-selling opportunities and further efficiency improvements. By combining sales activities in the UK, Western Europe, CEE and Africa and the cross-selling of Brenntag’s existing product portfolio to Multisol’s customer base, the companies aim for continued growth in existing and new markets.

Paul Oliphant, CEO of Multisol will together with his board colleagues continue to lead the operating business of Multisol. “We are pleased to become an important part of such a dynamic company. Multisol has grown significantly over the years and being part of the Brenntag global network will provide us with the assets to support our growth opportunities and improve our service to both our customers and suppliers”, he comments.

As usual for transactions of this kind, the completion of this acquisition is subject to certain merger control clearances which are expected to be obtained during the 4th quarter of 2011.

Evonik: Construction begins on specialty chemical facility for electronic chips

 Evonik Industries has begun building a second hexachlorodisilane (HCDS) production facility in Rheinfelden, a city in Germany’s Baden region. Production is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2012. Hexachlorodisilane, a raw material containing silicon, is used by the semiconductor industry to manufacture inexpensively and efficiently, among other things, memory chips with extremely high storage densities. Known as “flash memory,” these chips can be found in devices such as smart phones, digital cameras, MP3 players, or USB sticks. Solid state drives consisting of flash memory chips instead of the standard hard drives are also increasingly used in computers.

“By building this new production facility, we’re striving to further bolster our already strong position as a provider of key raw materials for the electronics industry,” comments Dr. Thomas Haeberle, Evonik’s Executive Board member with responsibility for the segment Resource Efficiency. Evonik markets hexachlorodisilane under the Siridion® HCDS brand. “We believe that hexachlorodisilane has promising market prospects and are planning to supply it in particular to Asia’s semiconductor industry,” adds Thomas Hermann, Head of the Inorganic Materials Business Unit.

Production methods for silicon compounds are one of Evonik’s most important technology platforms as a specialty chemicals producer. The company itself developed the hexachlorodisilane production process and successfully implemented it in Rheinfelden in September 2010 as the first plant put into operation. The second, new production facility is much larger and has a capacity of several tens of thousands of kilograms.

 

Solvay to build large specialty polymers production plant in China

 Solvay announced it has launched a project to build a specialty polymers production plant for SOLEF® Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF), Tecnoflon® Fluoroelastomers (FKM) and their essential monomer VF2 in China to satisfy the growing demand for these high value-added specialty polymers in Asia.

The plant will be built at Solvay's industrial site in Changshu in the province of Jiangsu and is scheduled to become operational at the beginning of 2014. It requires the investment of EUR 120 million and will significantly boost Solvay's global production capacity for these specialty polymers.

The new plant in Changshu will be built next to the compounding plant under construction for Amodel® polyphthalamide (PPA), Ixef® polyarylamide (PARA) and Kalix® (modified PARA) which is scheduled to become operational in the last quarter of 2012.

"This new production plant will enable Solvay to capture a part of the huge growth potential in this exciting and dynamic region. We'll bring our customers more high value-added polymers which will help them improve their environmental footprint and sustainability profile," comments Jacques van Rijckevorsel, Group General Manager of Solvay's Plastics Sector and member of the Executive Committee.