BASF has agreed to partner with China’s SVOLT on the supply of cathode active materials (CAMs), R&D into sustainable battery materials and the ultimate recycling of battery cells. They will also assess joint upstream resourcing to strengthen the security of raw material supply. Financial terms were not disclosed.
French speciality chemicals firm Protex International has completed and made its first shipments from a new manufacturing operation for its Guangdong Prox-Chem Speciality Chemicals subsidiary. This makes Protex’s full range of additives for water-based paints, inks and dyeing aids and textile finishing products for clothing, furnishings and technical textiles textile processing.
As “part of its strategy to meet the evolution of customer needs in fine chemicals and services”, the Minafin Group has reorganised itself into three divisions, each with its own CEO, with effect from 1 October. They are:
* Health Chemistry, comprising the pharmaceutical activities of Minakem CDMO, Minakem Generics and HPAPIs, led by a CEO who is as yet unannounced
* Green Chemistry, comprising the mainly non-pharma activities of Pennakem, Minasolve, Minagro and EcoXtract, under Gust Desmedt
Umicore has signed separate five-year, renewable lithium supply agreements with two companies, Ganfeng Lithium of Jiangxi, China, and Vulcan Energy Resources of Karlsruhe, Germany. Both are integral to its cathode business and to its own environmental commitment.
The agreement with Ganfeng Lithium will come into effect in 2022 and will cover a significant part of Umicore’s future lithium requirements in Asia. The lithium is mined from hard-rock deposits in Australia under strict sustainability standards.
Europe's main trade association for chemicals gave a mixed greeting to the European Commissions's new sustainability strategy
The European Commission (EC) has published a new Chemical Strategy for Sustainability and invited the European Parliament and the Council to endorse this and to contribute to its implementation. It envisages revising REACH “in the most targeted way possible”, while also taking other initiatives to improve legislation.
Ten major global chemical sector companies have agreed with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to establish what they called “a breakthrough, pre-competitive development platform to accelerate net-zero climate technologies”. They are BASF, Dow, DSM, Solvay, Clariant, Covestro, Mitsubishi Chemical, Air Liquide, Sabic and Sibur.
ECHA has published advice on how to use the OECD guideline to REACH registrants on how to reliably combine different sources of non-animal data on skin sensitisation properties of their substances. This is the first guideline outlining how to use in silico tools like the QSAR Toolbox for this purpose. Mike Rasenberg, ECHA’s director for hazard assessment, described it as “an important milestone for advancing the use of alternative methods to assess chemical hazards”.
