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EVONIK NAMES HEAD FOR NORTH AMERICA Evonik Industries has named Thomas Bates head of its North American operations. Bates will retain his current duties as manager of Evonik’s site in Mobile, Ala., the German company’s largest North American plant. Bates joined Degussa, now part of Evonik, in 1998 as director of manufacturing for silicas and chemical cata- lysts. Evonik has about 4,000 employees in 57 locations throughout North America. PRAXAIR OXYGEN WILL TREAT DRINKING WATER FOR THE OLYMPICS Praxair has signed an exclusive agreement to supply oxygen to Beijing No. 3 Water Works, which will provide drinking water for the Olympic Games. The industrial gases company says it is concluding oxygen supply contracts with two other Beijing water works and expects to have oxygen plants running at all three by May. Beijing draws its drinking water from the Yangtze River. According to Praxair, the city is re- BUSINESS ROUNDUP EVONIK DUPONT has raised its first-quarter earnings estimate to about $1.29 per share from a previous outlook of $1.14 to $1.19. The company says growth in agricultural businesses and emerging markets is offsetting higher-cost ingredients and challenges in some U.S. markets. ARKEMA is shutting down production of methacrylic-butadienestyrene impact modifiers at its plant in Axis, Ala., and will consolidate production in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. The products are used in polyvinyl Bates chloride resins and engineering polymers. The company says the move will save it about $5 million during the first year. BAYER MaterialScience has purchased Resina Chemie for an undisclosed sum. Based in Foxhol, the Netherlands, Resina makes polyurethane systems for the refrigeration and construction industries. ROHM AND HAAS has acquired ACIL, the exclusive distributor of the U.S. resin maker’s powder coatings in France. The company has also launched a service that provides next-day delivery of orders of 275 kg BUSINESS CONCENTRATES placing chlorine as a water disinfectant and retrofitting the three plants to treat water with activated carbon and an oxygen-fed ozone system. NEKTAR ENDS INHALED INSULIN PROGRAMS Nektar Therapeutics, a developer of drug delivery technologies, has stopped efforts to find a partner for its inhaled insulin program after Pfizer, its former partner, released negative clinical results last week. An ongoing review of clinical data for the Pfizer product Exubera showed an increase in lung cancer cases among former smokers using inhaled insulin compared with a control group. Pfizer pulled Exubera from the market in October 2007 after 18 months of limited patient interest and dismal sales. To conclude their product development relationship, Pfizer paid Nektar $135 million and agreed to transfer product rights if Nektar found another partner. HARVARD AND MERCK FORM RESEARCH PACT Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development has signed a multiyear license and sponsored-research agreement with Merck & Co. focused on new osteoporosis therapies. Merck will fund or less to powder coatings customers across Europe. BAYER MaterialScience will supply commercial quantities of carbon nanotubes to Clariant for incorporation into polymer additives and compounded thermoplastics. Clariant will initially use nanotubes in a new conductive additive in its CESA product line. Potential applications include conductive machine components and packaging for electronic components. ASPEN AEROGELS has opened a $30 million plant in East Providence, R.I., that triples its capac- WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 26 APRIL 14, 2008 research in the lab of immunology professor Laurie Glimcher. In return, it will get licenses to specific molecules that may result from the work. Glimcher studies the molecular pathways that lead to bone growth and looks for intervention points for enhancing bone formation or preventing osteoporosis in adults. Her lab has already identified several key mediators of bone growth that Merck hopes to use in the development of therapies. BIOTECH COMPANIES PLAN JOB REDUCTIONS Neurogen has received $30.6 million from private investors that it says will allow it to advance clinical development programs in insomnia, anxiety, restless legs syndrome, and Parkinson’s disease. The company had revealed last month that its auditors had doubts about its continued survival. At the same time, the Branford, Conn., company is cutting its workforce by about 45 people in research and administration. In February, it announced the elimination of about 70 employees. Neurogen employed 149 people at the end of 2007. Separately, Keryx Biopharmaceuticals is cutting its workforce in half to about 25 employees. The New York City-based company recently received a negative outcome in a Phase III clinical trial of Sulonex for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy. ity to make nanoporous aerogel insulation products. The company says its aerogels are up to eight times more effective than other insulation products. BASF has acquired BCD Rohstoffe für Bauchemie, a supplier of polymer dispersions for cementbased coating systems and air-entraining agents used in mortar and cement. The acquisition includes the firm’s expertise, patents, and formulations. DOW CHEMICAL’S Amerchol business will market zinc oxide products in North and Latin America that are manufactured by Advanced Nanotechnology of Perth, Australia. Dow says Advanced Nano’s zinc oxides can be used in nonwhitening, nongreasy sunscreens that absorb both UVA and UVB rays. IRONWOOD Pharmaceuticals is the new name for Microbia, a Cambridge, Mass., company developing drugs for irritable bowel syndrome and hypercholesterolemia. Ironwood is also majority owner of Microbia Precision Engineering, an industrial biotechnology company that develops bioprocesses for the production of specialty chemicals.
SOUTHERN COPPER SULFURIC ACID is one of those unheralded lubricants that keep the gears of the industrial economy spinning. Although less in the limelight than petrochemicals such as ethylene or polyethylene, it is in fact the largest volume chemical in the world. Over the past six months, it has become a very expensive chemical as well. The spot market price for sulfuric acid sold on the U.S. Gulf Coast is four times higher today than it was a year ago. And because sulfuric acid is critical to so many manufacturing operations, the price runup is causing grief for a wide range of industrial users. The story of sulfuric acid’s rise is intertwined with the stories of metals, fertilizers, grains, and other commodities that have been skyrocketing in price in recent months because of insatiable demand from China and other developing countries. Although industry observers advance various explanations for why acid prices are rising, they all agree that some kind of market hysteria is also at work. Robert Boyd, founder of the sulfur and sulfuric acid consulting firm PentaSul, traces the run-up back to what at the time must have seemed like an inconsequential hiccup: the inability of the Phoenix-based copper company Southern Copper to get a Peruvian sulfuric acid plant up and running on time. BUSINESS THE ACID TOUCH RISING PRICES for sulfuric acid have widespread industrial impact MICHAEL MCCOY, C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAU Smelters of copper, nickel, and other metals play a pivotal role in the sulfuric acid business. Traditional refining of sulfidic copper ores creates copious amounts of sulfur dioxide gas, which most modern smelters capture and convert into sulfuric acid. Yet refining copper via the comparatively new solvent extraction/electrowinning technique requires huge quantities of sulfuric acid to leach metal out of copper oxide-rich ores. Depending on their location, metal companies can be big acid sellers or big acid buyers. Early last year, Southern was set to become a big acid seller following the installation of abatement equipment designed to capture more than 92% of the company’s sulfur dioxide emissions in the form of 1 million metric tons of sulfuric acid annually. However, Boyd says the plant didn’t get fully going until May. In the meantime, Southern was forced to buy sulfuric acid on the open market to satisfy the customers it had lined up. That open market, however, was becoming crowded with producers of metals and fertilizers seeking sulfuric acid for their own operations. Prices for these commodi- WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 27 APRIL 14, 2008 GIVE AND TAKE Refining copper, shown here at Southern Copper’s Ilo, Peru, smelter, can produce or consume sulfuric acid. ties were hitting all-time highs, and sellers were desperate to cash in while they could. Since the initial market tightening last spring, the situation has only intensified. “I have never seen anything like it, and I have been in the business for 23 years,” says Jack Weaverling, senior vice president of the Texas-based sulfuric acid marketer Shrieve Chemical. Part of the problem, Weaverling and other industry players say, is the way that disparate events are converging to drive up the price of sulfuric acid. These days, metal makers have an incentive to turn out as much copper as they can. According to the London Metal Exchange, copper is selling for more than $3.80 per lb today, compared with only about $1.40 at the beginning of 2005. Many firms are turning to the solvent extraction method and need acid to run these facilities. For example, at the same time that Southern is capturing and selling acid at its new Peruvian operation, the company plans to build another copper facility in Peru that will consume more than two-thirds of that acid. EVEN CRAZIER than metals is the phosphate fertilizer market, thanks to booming global demand for corn and other foodstuffs. A World Bank report puts the average 2006 price of diammonium phosphate (DAP), the most widely traded phosphate fertilizer, at $260 per metric ton on the U.S Gulf Coast. Last month, according to Penta Sul, DAP broke $1,000 per metric ton. U.S. phosphate fertilizer producers use sulfuric acid to convert phosphate rock, mined chiefly in central Florida, into phosphoric acid. Their operations account for fully 60% of U.S. sulfuric acid consumption. Although most big fertilizer producers make their own acid, times of outsized demand can prompt them to look to outside supplies. And with the returns they are getting on DAP, they can afford to pay whatever the market is charging. According to NorFalco, an Ohio-based company that markets sulfuric acid from several Canadian smelters and is one of North America’s largest suppliers, fertil- Disparate events are converging to drive up the price of sulfuric acid to record highs.
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