Oleochemicals producer Oleon has acquired a majority stake in A. Azevedo Óleos, a Brazilian oleochemical company specialised in castor oil and its derivatives. The company said that this strengthens its position in the rapidly growing South American market. Terms were not disclosed.

CDMO SK Pharmteco has announced plans to invest $260 million in a new small molecule and peptide facility in Sejong, South Korea, the fifth in its home country and the cornerstone of its global manufacturing network. This is scheduled to begin operations in late 2026, creating over 300 jobs.

At its Capital Markets Day in Ludwigshafen, BASF presented a corporate strategy that, it said, “is setting a new direction”. ‘Winning Ways’ is set along four strategic levers of Focus, Accelerate, Transform and Win. “Our ambition is to be the preferred chemical company to enable our customers’ green transformation,” said Dr Markus Kamieth, chairman of the board of executive directors (pictured).

Cambrex’s Snapdragon Chemistry subsidiary has developed a new liquid-phase peptide synthesis (LPPS) technology that uses traditional API batch reactors and continuous flow, obviating the dependency on specialised, solid-phase reactors. It also “materially reduces solvent demand and the need for excess reagents compared to standard solid-state peptide synthesis (SPPS) processes”.

Kemira and IFF have completed the construction of a renewable polymer plant as part of their strategic cooperation in providing alternatives to fossil-based products. This is based on IFF’s Designed Enzymatic Biomaterial (DEB) platform technology and is located at the operator Chemigate’s Finnamyl biorefinery in Kokemäki, Finland.

Japan’s Fujifilm Electronic Materials is to invest about $140 million to enhance the development, production and quality evaluation functions for advanced semiconductor materials at two sites in Japan. This comes in response to growing demand for semiconductors in both volume and quality terms and follows the start-up of a CMP slurries plant at Kumamoto in January.

Ravindra Heraeus is to acquire the business of Arora Matthey in Vizag, India, and will continue its operation with over 70 employees. The company said that this buy will enable it to offer its range precious metals catalyst and recycling technology to the local chemicals and pharmaceuticals industries.