Italian CDMO Olon Group has announced a €10 million, multi-year expansion plan for its production site in Mahad, India. This will increase its chemical synthesis capacity for intermediates and APIs by 45%, particularly for products in high demand where Olon is already the market leader.
Sergey Nozhenko, a solution expert in SAP’s chemicals industry business unit, explains how value management can help speciality chemicals businesses assess and continually improve upon the ROI of their core IT outlays
Show me the money. It seems a simple enough request – or, perhaps better, demand - but it is one that has been asked imperfectly over the decades of enterprise resource processing (ERP) system implementations in the speciality chemicals business.
During its Q4 earnings update, Ashland announced plans for a series of “portfolio optimisation actions to further strengthen the company’s resilience and improve margins and returns in this uncertain environment”. These are expected to improve adjusted EBITDA margins by about 2% and returns on net assets by 1.5-2%.
Ingevity has announced that it will close its site at DeRidder, Louisiana, by the end of 1H 2024 plus other cost reduction actions. Combined with previously announced cuts, these are expected to yield savings of $65-75 million/year from 2024 onwards.
DeRidder makes a range of products based on crude tall oil (CTO), primarily for the Industrial Specialties business. The company is seeking to transition away from CTO-based fatty acids and towards those based on soy, canola and others. This is because of the high costs of CTO as a result of demand from the biofuels market.
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF) is to fund the Green Chem consortium in building “an ecosystem for transfer in the field of green chemistry” with up to €10 million. The 29-strong consortium is led by Covestro, Berlin-Chemie and three universities in the city, and includes regional technology clusters, private firms and foundations, among others.
Aashi Mishra shares some highlights from a recent Research Nester study
Oleochemicals are chemicals that are obtained from fats and oils, both vegetable and animal. They find use across diverse industries and are gaining popularity owing to their eco-friendly and sustainable characteristics.
Oleochemicals have a range of qualities, including being biodegradable, low toxicity levels and being derived from renewable sources. Moreover, they can be customised to exhibit attributes like enhanced lubrication or increased solubility.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has removed an exemption for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) reporting, requiring companies to submit data on products containing any level of PFAS to the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) each year. Previously, those containing minimal concentrations of PFAS were exempt.
