NEWS
IN BRIEF
Second head office
Indian pigments giant Sudarshan has opened its second global head office at the Hillsite office building in Schwalbach am Taunus, Germany. This follows the acquisition of the Heubach Group in March 2025, which brought a production 11 km away at the Industriepark Höchst. Covering 1,950 m 2, the office“ is designed to foster collaboration and integration across the company’ s unified global operations”, Sudarshan said.
Symrise breaks ground
Symrise has begun construction of the second phase a new logistics centre at its headquarters in Holzminden, Germany. Due to be completed in March 2028, this represents an investment of about € 25 million and is part of the Vision 2035 infrastructure program, with which the company is making targeted investments at Holzminden. It comprises a fully automated, highbay warehouse with around 10,000 shelf spaces measuring and a twostorey connecting building.
Clariant completes line
Clariant has completed a € 108 million investment at its facility in Daya Bay, China, with a second production line due to be fully operational in November. This will supply the company’ s Exolit range of halogen-free flame retardants in Asia and globally, particularly for e-mobility. Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the first batch of Exolit AP being made in Germany
PQ buys BASF’ s silicates
US-based silicates, silicas and derivatives supplier PQ has agreed to acquire BASF’ s silicates business, including assets at the Düsseldorf-Holthausen site. Subject to customary closing conditions, the deal should be completed in 2H. Financial terms will not be disclosed. Silicates are mainly used in rubber and tyres, paints and coatings,
Artist ' s impression of the new lab facility
Neuland to open lab
Indian CDRMO Neuland is to open a dedicated process development laboratory and integrated kilo lab within an existing building at its Genome Valley campus in Hyderabad. Costing $ 20 million and covering 12,500 m 2, the new facility will be fully complete in October. It will also take the process development team to more than 500, one of the largest scale-up workforces in India.
One key difference from other process development laboratories, which may also support discovery or other mixed-use workstreams, is that the new facility has been designed exclusively for process development. It will also integrate non-GMP kilo labs, allowing scientists to evaluate process performance at larger scales without transferring work to other sites or competing for access to GMP capacity.
Other features include AI-driven route scouting, parallel synthesis and electronic laboratory notebooks. A centralised analytical wing will house a full range of characterisation technologies, with the facility also including specialised zones for process engineering, polymorph studies, process safety and advanced flow chemistry, plus five peptide labs and three purification labs.
This followed on soon after Neuland announced a major expansion to its peptides capabilities, including a new $ 20 million process development laboratory and a multi-phase commercial peptide manufacturing facility at its Bonthapally campus in Hyderabad. The first module, with about 6,370 litres of capacity, is now operational.
Neuland has also entered into a development partnership with LIR Life Sciences, a Canadian biotech that is developing a cellpenetrating peptide( CPP) platform for obesity treatments. As part of this, Neuland will develop, test and manufacture CPPs to support PK-PD studies, plus Phase I formulations for LIR’ s patchbased, transdermal delivery system for GLP-1 therapies.
Croda International has commissioned a new facility in Guangzhou, bringing together the capabilities of Croda Beauty Actives and Iberchem Fragrances in China and creating“ a regional hub that strengthens innovation, production and customer collaboration closer to market”. The facility has been designed to support customers seeking scientifically substantiated ingredients, locally relevant botanicals and fragrance technologies tailored to regional consumer preferences. It is also said to strengthen Croda’ s ability to provide technical support, formulation expertise and supply reliability across the wider Asia region.
12 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981