Market and sustainability trends are positive drivers for Saltigo, despite the agro downturn. Andrew Warmington met up with the new CEO at Chemspec Europe

Chemspec Europe 2024 in Düsseldorf on 19-20 June was the first for the new CEO of Saltigo. Michael Schäfer had been with the parent company Lanxess since 2007, mostly in the Material Protection Products business unit, which he headed for ten years before moving to take over at Saltigo in February.

Chicago-based CC Industries (CCI) has acquired Foremark Performance Chemicals from SK Capital Partners. No financial details were disclosed. CEO Randy Owens and the rest of the management team will stay in place and Foremark will continue to operate as a stand-alone entity.

Foremark produces proprietary natural gas sweeteners, chemical building blocks and slow-release fertilisers from a highly automated, vertically integrated facility at League, Texas. Its customer base is mainly the Gulf Coast region of the US.

Jubilant Ingrevia has commissioned a new 2,000 tonnes/year facility for diketene derivatives at Gajraula in India’s Uttar Pradesh state. The company’s supplies these to the pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and other industries, including the US and the EU. This and early efforts to get customer product approvals, are expected to account for much of the capacity utilisation in the coming months.

BioConsortia, a California-based specialist in advanced microbial products for agriculture, has announced some field trial results confirming that levels of nitrogen-replacement from its nitrogen-fixing seed and soil treatment products met or exceeded performance expectations when evaluated in potatoes, tomatoes and lettuce. This expands their potential market beyond cereals.  

Italian-based speciality chemicals group Italmatch has signed a binding agreement to purchase the majority of Alcolina, a Brazilian company specialised in water treatment for bioethanol, sugar production and industrial applications, including paint, pulp and paper. Terms were not disclosed.

Alcolina has two manufacturing sites at Cravinhos and Rio Lago, 80 employees and it had a turnover of €35 million in 2023. Italmatch said that the company is “strongly complementary” to its own current product portfolio. The company now generates 5% of its sales in Latin America.

Syngenta and Connecticut-based Enko have announced the discovery of novel chemistry to control fungal disease in crops, using a platform that reduces the time required for R&D discovery. This features a new mode of action designed to target diseases that currently cause the loss of 10-23% of the yield of cereal crops.

Two Indian speciality chemicals companies have made important announcements in the field of agrochemical intermediates. Aarti Industries has signed a long-term supply contract, while Jubilant Ingrevia has opened a new facility.

Aarti’s new contract is with an unnamed major agrochemicals supplier and could be worth about €330,000 over nine years. It pertains to a niche intermediate for a herbicide that is used with corn, soybean, cotton, sugarcane, sunflowers and other crops. No capacity expansion is needed as the intermediate is already in the company’s portfolio.