NEWS
IN BRIEF
Battery material deal Arkema has signed a memorandum of understanding to supply advanced speciality materials to Senior, a specialist in battery separator technologies. Key areas of cooperation will include advanced adhesion technologies, controlled deposition and coating processes on electrodes, lowtemperature cell assembly and emerging semi-solid battery manufacturing technologies.
Agno acquires ex-Cascade site Pennsylvania-based CDMO Agno Pharma has acquired Actylis Eugene, the legacy Cascade Chemistry business in Eugene, Oregon. Terms were not disclosed. The site has a 1,500 m 2 R & D lab and a newly constructed 2,800 m 2 manufacturing facility with the GMP infrastructure needed to support early-phase to late-phase clinical API production.
Acuutas buys in Korea Via its local subsidiary, India’ s Acutaas Chemicals, the former Ami Organics, has acquired a 75 % controlling stake in South Korea-based Indichem at $ 0.35 / share. Regulators in both countries have already approved. Indichem makes speciality chemicals for semiconductors and will commission a new plant by the end of the year.
Kemira buys two for Water Solutions
Kemira has made acquisitions on both sides of the Atlantic that will both be added to the Water Solutions business: SIDRA Wasserchemie in Germany for about € 75 million, subject to usual purchase price adjustments and AquaBlue of Ohio, for a little under $ 10 million.
SIDRA is a family-owned coagulant producer with two facilities in Germany, also serving the Benelux region. It had sales of about € 40 million and EBITDA of about € 10 million in 2024, and employs over 60 people, who are expected to join Kemira once the acquisition has been closed.
AquaBlue supplies wastewater and industrial water treatment services to the food and beverage, manufacturing and healthcare, and was also acquired from private ownership. The firm has revenues of about $ 9 million / year and employs eight people.
In addition, Kemira plans to spend about € 20 million on a new plant at its site at Tarragona, Spain, to reactivate spent activated carbon for the local drinking water market. The company said that this is“ yet another step towards Kemira’ s long-term ambition to double the water-related revenue”. The pre-engineering phase is now starting, and the new plant is expected to be operational at the end of 2029
Separately, Kemira has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to evaluate and explore commercial opportunities for the use of Hazer Group’ s proprietary methane pyrolysis technology in its water treatment and industrial operations. If initial assessments are positive, the two will begin discussions about commercial collaboration, such as technology licensing and / or product off-take.
BDO boosted BASF’ s Intermediates division is to gradually increase output of 1,4butanediol( BDO) at Ludwigshafen to strengthen supply security in Europe. The site’ s verbund structure encompasses the entire acetylene value chain, including tetrahydrofuran, polytetrahydrofuran and N-methylpyrrolidone. It also produces biomass-balanced versions of BDO and derivative products.
Indian CRDMO Jubilant Biosys has opened a new discovery and pre-clinical facility for small molecules within its Chemistry Research Innovation Centre at Greater Noida in Delhi. This will double the firm’ s chemistry capacity for discovery research and scale-up projects and bring the number of scientists there to over 1,300. The facility is designed to handle quantities from hundreds of grams up to 25 kg in two pilot plant blocks with co-located discovery labs. The R & D space covers 1,860 m 2 and has 15 reactors is sizes from 20L through to 250L. It also has the potential to quadruple capacity as demand grows.
10 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981