Protesters effectively prevented Sasol’s annual general meeting in Johannesburg from going ahead on 17 November. The meeting was expected to be tumultuous because of a shareholder’s plan to vote against a number of resolutions because of the company’s record on climate targets.
Syensqo, the speciality chemicals firm that is planned to be split out from Solvay, has presented its mid-term financial targets and sustainability commitments at its inaugural capital markets day. The separation is subject to shareholder approval at an extraordinary general meeting approval in Brussels on 8 December. Meanwhile the Belgian Financial Services & Markets Authority has approved a prospectus relating to listing Syensq’s shares on Euronext Brussels and Euronext Paris.
Italian CDMO Olon has opened its new R&D centre at its industrial plant and headquarters in Rodano, near Milan. This will be mainly dedicated to the development of APIs for the innovator and generic markets. It cost €10 million and will create 50 new jobs, bringing the total to 350 out of the 2,300 total.
‘Carbon negative’ materials company Origin Materials has announced an organisational realignment. With immediate effect, the California-based firm has cut the workforce by about 30%. It will will incur about $500,000 in severance costs and about $2.2 million “for the accelerated vesting of certain equity awards”.
Evonik has revealed that it is building a $7.9 million plant to produce ultra-high purity colloidal silica at its site in Weston, Michigan. Due onstream in 2024, this will be the first of its kind in North America. The investment was supported by a $900,000 performance-based grant under the Michigan Business Development Programme.
Swiss fine chemical manufacturer Valsynthese has entered into a manufacturing services agreement, under which it will host Grignard reagents production units based on the proprietary MgFlow Technology of Belgium’s Chemium and offer integrated services based on it. Chemium will commercialise ready-to-use Grignards through its Swiss subsidiary.
Chris van den Belt, product management team leader at IFS Ultimo, shows how health, safety and environmental management can be integrated into an EAM system
The management of tasks related to health protection, occupational safety and environmental management (HSE) is extremely important but also enormously complex. In the oil, gas, petrochemical and general chemical industries, many substances are stored and processed that can be explosive, flammable, toxic, harmful to the environment or otherwise hazardous.
