Avecia sells biocides businessto Arch ChemicalsAvecia has sold its Biocides business to globalspeciality chemicals company Arch ChemicalsInc for approximately US$215 million. The bio-cides business had sales of approximately $137million in 2003. This successfully concludes thesale agreement announced in March.

Dedicated manufacturing assets at Huddersfield,Grangemouth and Seals Sands in the UK, MountPleasant in the USA, and a technical service labo-ratory in New Castle, DE, USA are transferring toArch as part of the sale. Arch also gains commer-cial offices in Wilmington, DE, Tokyo, Sao Pauloand Frankfurt. The UK R&D centre, technicalservice laboratories and commercial offices willremain on the Avecia site in Manchester, UK undera long-term lease agreement. The business’sapproximately 290 employees worldwide havetransferred to Arch with the completion of the sale.

Avecia’s biocides serve two main business sec-tors: Protection & Hygiene and Pool & Spa. TheProtection & Hygiene business is a global sup-plier of biocides for the industrial and consumersegments. It develops and produces a range ofantimicrobial products for applications coveringindustrial preservation, disinfection, plastics,textiles and personal care. Its antimicrobialproducts for plastics are marketed under theVanquish™ brand name.

Arch Chemicals is headquartered in Norwalk,CT, USA and averages $1 billion in annual sales.It has an existing portfolio of industrial biocidesand holds a leadership position in chlorine-basedwater treatment chemicals. According to AveciaCEO Jeremy Scudamore, the acquisition ofAvecia’s Biocides business will complement andstrengthen Arch’s position in these sectors andprovide excellent opportunities for futuregrowth. Avecia will use the net proceeds fromthe sale largely to repay its bank debt.

Contact: Avecia Inc (Biocides), PO Box 42,Hexagon House, Blackley, Manchester, M9 8ZS,UK; tel: +44-161-721-2488; fax: +44-161-721-5207; URL: www.avecia.comArch Chemicals, Inc, 501 Merritt 7, PO Box5204, Norwalk, CT 06856-5204, USA; tel: +1-203-229-2900; fax: +1-203-229-3652; URL:www.archchemicals.com

Great Lakes, Laurel Industriesform antimony oxide joint ventureGreat Lakes Chemical Corp and LaurelIndustries, Inc, a part of the chemicals opera-tions of Occidental Petroleum Corp(OxyChem), are to combine their antimony-related businesses as part of a joint venture todevelop, produce and market antimony-basedflame retardants, synergists and catalysts. Thecompanies believe the move will enable them toface pressure from Chinese antimony importsmore effectively.

Great Lakes and OxyChem will both hold a 50%stake in the new company, which will operateunder the name GLCC Laurel LLC. The transac-tion, which is expected to be completed by the endof April, includes the antimony oxide and syner-gists manufacturing assets, intellectual propertyand customer lists for both Great Lakes andLaurel. Great Lakes says it will act as the manag-ing partner with responsibility for sales, customerservice, technical support, credit and logistics.

The joint venture includes the Great LakesTimonox®, TMS® and Trutint® antimonyoxide flame retardants; Pyrobloc® sodium anti-monate and zinc borate synergists; and Oncor®,Smokebloc® and Ongard® smoke suppressants;as well as the Fireshield® and Thermoguard®

antimony oxide-based products and PetCat®

catalyst products marketed by Laurel.

Manufacturing for the joint venture will be con-solidated into the existing Great Lakes antimo-ny production facility in Reynosa, Mexico,which is ISO 9001:2000 certified. The Laurelmanufacturing facility in LaPorte, TX, whichcurrently employs 14 OxyChem individuals, isexpected to be closed by the end of 2004 whenproduction of flame retardants and catalystgrades of antimony oxide will be transferred toReynosa. Great Lakes and Laurel will be work-ing closely with customers to ensure adequateinventories and time are available should quali-fication of materials produced in Reynosa benecessary. Several Laurel sales and managementemployees will also transfer to Great Lakes.

Contact: Great Lakes Chemical Corp, PO Box2200, 1 Great Lakes Boulevard, West Lafayette,

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Indianapolis, IN 47906-5394, USA; tel: +1-765-497-6100; fax: +1-765-497-6316; URL:www.greatlakeschem.com

More price increases for flameretardants and other additivesAlbemarle Corp has raised the price of itsNcendX™ P-30 phosphate-based flame retar-dant by US$0.35/kg globally. Market prices forthis type of flame retardant have declined sig-nificantly over the past few years while rawmaterial and energy costs have increased, threat-ening the economic viability of continued sup-ply, the company says. NcendX P-30 is used inalloy resins such as PC/ABS and HIPS/PPO,primarily for television, computer monitor andother electrical office equipment enclosures.

The company has also increased the prices of itsline of Antiblaze® chlorinated phosphate esterflame retardants by 10% globally, to help coverincreased raw material costs and continued regu-latory expenses. Minimum order lead times andother sales controls may also be imposed as nec-essary on a regional basis to ensure a consistentflow of products to customers, Albemarle says.In addition, a shortage of bisphenol A (BPA) andhigher costs are responsible for the companyintroducing an additional ‘BPA surcharge’ of$0.05/kg on the price of its Saytex® CP-2000tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) flame retar-dant. The company says it may also be necessaryto introduce sales controls for the TBBPA prod-uct. All three increases are effective with ship-ments from 1 April 2004, or as contracts allow.

Great Lakes Chemical Corp is also hiking off-listprices for its phosphate ester flame retardants(Reofos™ and Kronitex™) by an average of 15%worldwide effective for shipments after 15 April2004, as contracts permit. From the same date, listand off-list prices for a range of brominated flameretardants will be raised by 10%. The productsaffected are: polybromostyrene (PBS) flame retar-dants, including Great Lakes PBDS-80™,Firemaster® PBS-64, PBS-64 HW, andCP44HF™; the hexabromocyclododecane(HBCD) series of flame retardants including GreatLakes CD-75P™, CP-75PC™, CD-75PM™, CD-75PXF™, SP-75 ™ and SP-75C™; and theTBBPA flame retardant Great Lakes BA-59P™.

The company is also increasing prices world-wide by 10% for its main antioxidants includingAlkanox® 240 phosphite secondary antioxi-dants, and Anox® 20 and Anox® PP-18 hin-dered phenolic primary antioxidants, from 15April 2004, or as contracts allow. The price forAnox® NDB® (No Dust Blends) and otherblends will also increase dependent upon mainantioxidant content and value. Rapidly increas-ing costs and growing demand are cited as themain reasons for the new pricing for both flameretardants and antioxidants.

At Rohm and Haas, the Plastics AdditivesBusiness has announced a price increase inEurope for its Paraloid™ impact modifiers andprocessing aids. Effective 1 May 2004, priceswill be increased by between 5.5% and 6.5%,depending on the product range. “We haveincurred significantly increased costs in all keyfeedstocks for our additives. Depending on theraw material concerned, the market price hasincreased by 20% to 50% over the past twoyears. We are doing everything we can to absorbas much as possible of these additional costs butnow have no other choice but to implement thisprice increase”, explains Rod Shorey, EuropeanSales Manager.

Finally, Dow Chemical has introduced aUS$.15/lb North American price increase for itsFlexol™ epoxidized soybean oil plasticizer, effec-tive 12 April 2004 or as allowed by contracts. Allother terms and conditions remain unchanged.The increase results from continuing increases inthe price of key raw material soybean oil.

Contact: Albemarle Corp, 451 Florida Street,Baton Rouge, LA 70801-1765, USA; tel: +1-225-388-7402; fax: +1-225-388-7848; URL:www.albemarle.comDow Chemical Co, 39 Old Ridgebury Road,Danbury, CT 06817-0001, USA; tel: +1-203-794-3504; URL: www.dow.comGreat Lakes Chemical Corp, PO Box 2200, 1Great Lakes Boulevard, West Lafayette,Indianapolis, IN 47906-5394, USA; tel: +1-765-497-6100; fax: +1-765-463-2188; URL:www.pa.greatlakes.comRohm and Haas, La tour de Lyon, 185 rue deBercy, 75579 Paris Cedex 12, France; tel: +33-1-4002-5032; fax: +33-1-4002-5014; URL:www.rohmhaas.com

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