Croda International has broken ground for a low-carbon, multi-purpose production facility on a greenfield site in Guangzhou. This triples its manufacturing capacity for fragrances and establishes its fist production capability for beauty actives, mainly botanicals, in China. It is also part of the company’s plan to deliver fast growth in Asia. 

Kensing, an Illinois-based manufacturer of natural vitamin E, plant sterols, anionic surfactants and esters for applications in personal care among other things, has acquired Advanced Organic Materials (AOM). Terms were not disclosed. AOM supplies non-GMO plant-based vitamin E, mixed tocopherols and phytosterols derived from sunflower and rapeseed out of facilities in Spain and Argentina.

Wacker Chemie has held a kick-off event at its site at Zhangjiagang in China’s Jiangsu province to mark the start of construction of several new production lines for functional silicone fluids, silicone emulsions and silicone elastomer gels. It will invest about €150 million on the expansion project. The lines are due onstream in 2H 2025

Speciality chemicals company Elementis has come under pressure after an investor, Franklin Mutual Advisers, published an open letter to board chairman John O’Higgins, calling for it to put itself up for sale before its Q3 results on 31 October. Elementis has responded by saying it did not think this to be in shareholders’ best interests.

Brenntag has announced an agreement to acquire independent speciality chemical distributor of Chemgrit Group of Johannesburg, South Africa, in a deal that is expected to close in Q4. Shortly afterwards, it also opened operations at two new innovation and application centres for personal care in France and the UK.

Amyris and some of its US domestic subsidiaries have begun voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware as part of an operational and financial restructuring. This process does not affect its subsidiaries outside the USA.

Apical Oleochemical (Taixing), an RGE China operation, has celebrated on the completion of the initial phase of its ‘oleochemical industry integration project’ at Taixing in Jiangsu province. Construction for the initial phase began in July 2021 and was completed in March 2023, with production starting in June.