rongsheng international business limited for sale

Rongsheng Machinery Manufacture Ltd of Huabei Oilfield, Hebei, which was founded in 1976, has now been an internationally famous comprehensive petroleum machinery manufacturer, and has grown to be the largest manufacturer and dealer of land-use BOPs.

NOTE: Rongsheng North America, Inc. is the only legal subsidiary of Rongsheng Machinery Manufacture Ltd. in the United States which is authorized to sell "HRSB" brand products including BOP"s, Mud Pumps and Well Heads.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries Co Ltd has appointed Morgan Stanleyand JP Morganto finalize plans for its long-awaited IPO in Hong Kong, aiming to raise up to $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter, sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

This is Rongsheng’s latest bid to go public after it failed to raise more than $2 billion from a planned IPO in Hong Kong in 2008, mainly as a result of the global financial crisis.

Rongsheng"s early main shareholders included an Asia investment arm of Goldman Sachs, U.S. hedge fund D.E. Shaw and New Horizon, a China fund founded by the son of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

The three investors sold off their stakes in Rongsheng for a profit early this year, said the sources familiar with the situation. Representatives for the banks, funds and Rongsheng all declined to comment.

Rongsheng’s revived IPO plan comes at a challenging time. Smaller domestic rival, New Century Shipbuilding, slashed its Singapore IPO in half last week, planning to raise up to $560 million from the originally planned $1.24 billion due to weak market conditions.

Given uncertainty in the global shipbuilding business environment as well as growing concerns over a huge flow of fund-raising events in Hong Kong, investment bankers suggest the potential size for Rongsheng could be $1 billion to $1.5 billion, according to the sources.

Rongsheng is seeking to tap capital markets to fund fast growth and aims to catch up with bigger state-owned rivals such as Guangzhou Shipyard International Co Ltd.

Rongsheng won a $484 million deal to build four ships for Oman Shipping Co last year. The vessels would carry exports from an iron ore pellet plant in northern Oman which is expected to begin production in the second half of 2010.

HONG KONG, Nov 26 (Reuters) - China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group, the country’s largest private shipbuilder, said its chairman had stepped down just three months after the company posted its sharpest fall in half-year net profit.

Listed in November 2010, Rongsheng was hit by an insider dealing scandal involving a firm owned by Zhang ahead of the $15.1 billion bid for Canadian oil firm Nexen Inc by China offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC.

Rongsheng said earlier this month that investment firm Well Advantage, controlled by Zhang, had agreed to pay $14 million as part of a settlement deal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In August, Rongsheng posted an 82 percent drop in half-year profit on a dearth of new orders and warned economic uncertainties would continue to weigh on the global shipping market.

As part of the changes at China Rongsheng, the company said that Zhang De Huang was retiring and had resigned as an executive director and as vice chairman of the board.

At the same time Frontline is pleased to announce that it intends to firmly declare four further newbuilding Suezmaxes orders from Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group Co. Ltd. (“Rongsheng”) in China. The vessels which are 156,000 dead weight tons will be delivered in 2009. Two of these Suezmaxes will be offered as an investment to Frontline’s affiliated company, Ship Finance International Limited. The four Suezmax newbuildings are in addition to the two newbuildings already declared. Frontline is also in the process of discussing a further two fixed priced options for similar vessels. The payment terms and contract price are considered favourable to other alternative ways to renew and grow the Frontline Suezmax fleet.

The decision to sell the General Maritime investment and order the Suezmaxes included a comparison between the Rongsheng 2009 newbuildings and the implicit pricing of an existing General Maritime newbuilding. With a price differential of more than USD $20 million, the Frontline Board feels that significant discount is given for a later delivery.

The Board of Frontline hopes that the sale of the General Maritime investment to another industry player will still have a positive consolidation effect on the tanker market. The proceeds from the sale will be allocated to repayment of debt, equity financing of the Rongsheng investments as well as increased dividend capacity.

(Bloomberg) — China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group Holdings Ltd., which hasn’t announced any 2012 ship orders, may find winning deals even harder as a company owned by its billionaire chairman faces an insider-trading probe.

Rongsheng, based in Shanghai, has tumbled 87 percent since a November 2010 initial public offering because of concerns about delivery delays and a global slump in ship orders caused by a glut of vessels. The shipbuilder, which operates facilities in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, also said yesterday that first- half profit probably dropped “significantly” because of falling prices and slowing orders.

The probe won’t affect day-to-day operations run by Chief Executive Officer Chen Qiang, as Chairman Zhang only has a non- executive role, Rongsheng said in a statement yesterday. Zhang wasn’t available for comment yesterday, according to Doris Chung, public relations manager at Glorious Property Holdings Ltd., a developer he controls.

Chen isn’t aware of Zhang’s personal business dealings and he has no plans to leave Rongsheng, he said yesterday by text message in reply to Bloomberg News questions. The CEO may help reassure potential customers as he is well-known among shipowners, said Lawrence Li, an analyst at UOB Kay Hian Holdings Ltd.

Zhang owns 46 percent of Rongsheng and 64 percent of Glorious Property, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The developer dropped 1.7 percent to close at HK$1.16 in Hong Kong today after falling 11 percent yesterday. Zhang’s listed holdings are worth about $1.2 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Zhang, who holds a Master’s of Business Administration degree from Asia Macau International Open University, started in building materials and construction subcontracting before getting into real estate. Construction of his first project, in Shanghai, began in 1996, according to Glorious Property’s IPO prospectus. He got into shipbuilding after discussing the idea with Chen at a Shanghai Young Entrepreneurs’ Association event in 2001, according to Rongsheng’s sale document. He formed the company that grew into Rongsheng three years later.

“People in his hometown think Zhang is a legend as he expanded two companies in different sectors so quickly,” said Ji Fenghua, chairman of Nantong Mingde Group, a shipyard located next to Rongsheng’s facility in Nantong city, Jiangsu province. The billionaire maintains a low profile, said Ji, who has never seen him at meetings organized by the local government.

Rongsheng raised HK$14 billion in its 2010 IPO, selling shares at HK$8 each. The company’s market value has fallen by about $6.1 billion to $1 billion, based on data compiled by Bloomberg.

Rongsheng, which also makes engines and excavators, had outstanding orders for 98 ships as of June 2012, according to Clarkson. It employed 7,046 people at the end of last year, according to its annual report. The shipbuilder has built a pipe-laying vessel for Cnooc and it has a strategic cooperation agreement with the energy company.

Rongsheng Machinery Manufacture Ltd of Huabei Oilfield, Hebei, which was founded in 1976, has now been an internationally famous comprehensive petroleum machinery manufacturer, and has grown to be the largest manufacturer and dealer of land-use BOPs.

NOTE: Rongsheng North America, Inc. is the only legal subsidiary of Rongsheng Machinery Manufacture Ltd. in the United States which is authorized to sell "HRSB" brand products including BOP"s, Mud Pumps and Well Heads.

HONG KONG - Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries is seeking $2.3 billion in what may be Hong Kong"s third-largest initial public offering (IPO) this year, according to terms sent to investors.

Rongsheng intends to use the sale proceeds for projects that include building a fourth drydock, as a rebound in world trade following last year"s global recession revives demand for ships. The company, which raised $300 million from investors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc in 2007, planned to sell shares in 2008 before the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and the credit crunch triggered a collapse in global stock markets.

BOC International Holdings Ltd is arranging the sale, along with CCB International (Holdings) Ltd, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley, according to the terms sheet.

Guangzhou Shipyard International Co, the largest shipyard listed in Hong Kong, has gained 28 percent this year. It trades at about 11 times estimated earnings.

The shipyard of China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group Holdings Ltd in Rugao, Jiangsu province. The company will generate HK$2.55 billion ($326.4 million) in a share sale in the next six months and HK$3.23 billion thereafter. [Provided to China Daily]

China Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group Holdings Ltd, the private-sector shipbuilder that had sought financial assistance, has secured cash for restructuring and announced changing the company"s name as it shifts focus to energy.

Shifting its focus to oil will need a lot more funds, which Rongsheng already struggled to get as a shipbuilder, said Francis Lun, chief executive officer of Geo Securities Ltd.

"They are already having funding problems. Their gamble has backfired. Some people might be concerned they might need a lot of funding in future because oil exploration is a very capital-intensive business," said Hong Kong-based Lun.

Rongsheng said it has now received the results of an appraisal by an independent assessor, which will be used as the basis for the restructuring in which it also plans to change its name to China Huarong Energy Co to more accurately reflect its expansion and new business scope.

Rongsheng Petro Chemical Co. Ltd., a major Chinese petrochemical company, visited Alberta at the end of September, meeting with bankers and industry executives, according to industry sources. Rongsheng inquired about everything from producing oil and gas to upgrading and refining crude. Such investments would help secure ingredients needed to fuel China"s manufacturing industry. Rongsheng chairman Li Shui Rong was part of the tour, according to a source.

Mr. Stringham met with Rongsheng officials and said the company was interested in both upstream and downstream investments. Upstream assets include oil and gas fields, while downstream translates into processing facilities such as upgraders. Some refineries and upgraders have been shuttered in North America because of their financial volatility, but companies like Rongsheng have a different rationale for investing in processing complexes.

"It was essentially: "We are looking for feedstock that is important for our business over there. And that"s why we"re here looking for opportunities to get that," Mr. Stringham said.

Ian MacGregor, chairman of North West Upgrading Inc., which is building a refinery with Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., has not been contacted by Rongsheng, but believes the country would benefit if foreigners invested in more oil processing in Canada. There is enough raw bitumen and oil available that competitors would not create a shortage of feedstock necessary to make refined products.

And although 2020 chemical earnings fell 22.6% for the 44 of the 50 firms that disclose chemical profits, they fell more—28.2%—in 2019 for the 46 companies disclosing profits on the list, when business in many major markets and economies was beginning to slow.

Three companies in the Global Top 50 a year ago didn’t make it this year. Ecolab fell off the list because it divested an oil-field chemical business. SK Innovation and PTT Global Chemical were both victims of declines in petrochemical sales.

Now that it is breaking out chemical sales again, Shell rejoins the Global Top 50 this year after a 5-year hiatus. Rongsheng Petrochemical, which makes polyester chemicals, debuts this year. The former DowDuPont agricultural chemical business, Corteva Agriscience, made the cut as well.

For the second year in a row, BASF leads the Global Top 50 as the world’s largest chemical maker. And because it managed, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, to avoid a big decline in sales, the German chemical company widened its sales lead over the number 2, Sinopec, from about $5 billion in 2019 to nearly $21 billion in 2020. Though BASF is an industry leader, its greenhouse gas emission goal—released in 2019—had been relatively modest: keep its carbon dioxide output level as it grows throughout the 2020s. This year, BASF changed course and unveiled a more ambitious target: a drop of 25% compared with 2018 emissions by the end of the decade. Because BASF is building a major complex in China, the new goal means the firm will need to halve emissions from its current operations. BASF is working on technologies that will help it meet the ambitious target. It is testing renewable energy–powered electric heaters in steam crackers, as opposed to fossil-fueled furnaces, and it plans to use electrolysis to generate hydrogen. The German company trimmed its portfolio recently. In June, it completed the sale of its pigment business to Japan’s DIC for $1.4 billion. And BASF and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice are selling their Solenis water treatment chemical joint venture to the private equity firm Platinum Equity in a deal valued at $5.25 billion.

The British chemical maker Ineos reunited most of the old BP Chemicals in January when it completed its $5 billion purchase of BP’s aromatics business. The business, which generated sales of about $3.6 billion in 2020, is one of the world’s largest producers of purified terephthalic acid, a polyethylene terephthalate raw material. The business is also a large acetic acid producer. It will join BP’s former olefin and polyolefin business, which Ineos acquired in 2005 for $9 billion. In a smaller purchase last year, Ineos bought out its partner Sasol’s 50% interest in Gemini HDPE, a high-density polyethylene joint venture in La Porte, Texas. The partners completed the plant, housed at an Ineos site, in 2017. When it isn’t making acquisitions, Ineos is investing in sustainability. At its Rafnes site in Norway, the firm is installing a 20 MW electrolyzer to make hydrogen from water. And its Ineos Styrolution unit is planning a plant in France that will depolymerize polystyrene into its raw material, styrene.

Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, Saudi Aramco, completed its purchase of a 70% stake in the petrochemical maker Sabic in June 2020. The purchase was meant to diversify Aramco, which today depends heavily on oil and gas. But soon after the deal closed, the firms announced they were reevaluating the scope of a planned complex that was to convert 400,000 barrels per day of crude oil into 9 million metric tons (t) per year of petrochemicals. Their new, more modest plan is to build an ethylene cracker and derivatives units that will be integrated with existing Aramco refineries. In another instance of Sabic and Aramco working together, the companies shipped 40 t of ammonia to a power plant in Japan last September. The ammonia is considered “blue” because carbon dioxide emitted during its manufacture was captured and used for enhanced oil recovery and methanol production in Saudi Arabia. In another strategic move, Sabic carved out a stand-alone business that includes its polyphenylene oxide, polyetherimide, and compounding units. The company got the businesses with its purchase of GE Plastics in 2007. Sabic had sought to combine them with Clariant’s masterbatch business, but those talks broke down in 2019.

Most large chemical companies nowadays are plunging into plastics recycling to counter public backlash, and Lyondell­Basell Industries is at the front of the pack. CEO Bob Patel is one of the founders of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, formed by industry to address the recycling problem. And Lyondell has its own initiatives. It and the waste management firm Suez bought the plastics recycler Tivaco and are combining it with Quality Circular Polymers, a recycling venture Lyondell and Suez started in 2018. Quality Circular has some high-profile clients. For example, Samsonite is using its resin for a line of sustainable suitcases. Meanwhile, Lyondell continues to grow its core petrochemical business, often on the cheap. In December, the firm bought, for the bargain price of $2 billion, a 50% interest in a new ethylene cracker and two polyethylene plants that the struggling Sasol had built. Similarly, it bought into an ethylene cracker joint venture already under construction in China.

While oil companies such as Shell and BP were redefining themselves as alternative energy players in recent years, ExxonMobil stuck with petroleum. The firm was taking what it considered a realistic position. Oil and gas are cheap and convenient, it argued, and would be hard to dislodge from the energy market for the next few decades. But COVID-19 hit the oil and gas business hard. ExxonMobil racked up a gaping corporate loss of $28 billion in 2020, even as its chemical unit earned an operating profit of $2.7 billion. The company is facing shareholder pressure to change, and it is starting to respond. For example, in April, it outlined a $100 billion plan to store 100 million metric tons per year of carbon dioxide in the Gulf of Mexico. The new environmental consciousness trickles down into chemicals. At a complex in France, ExxonMobil Chemical plans to host a pyrolysis plant that breaks down waste plastics into chemical raw materials. And at its Baytown, Texas, chemical facility, it is testing a plastics recycling process. Separately, in a rare move, ExxonMobil is divesting a business, selling its Santoprene thermoplastic vulcanizate operation to Celanese for $1.15 billion.

As DuPont separated from DowDuPont in 2019, observers wondered how long the company would last. DuPont executive chairman Ed Breen once presided over the breakup of the industrial conglomerate Tyco, causing some to reckon he had similar plans for DuPont. It now appears that DuPont is here to stay, with Breen satisfied that the company has done enough portfolio restructuring to stand on its own. The largest of those moves came in February, when the company completed the sale of its Nutrition & Biosciences division to International Flavors & Fragrances. The sale yielded $7.3 billion in proceeds. DuPont also agreed to sell its biomaterials business, a producer of 1,3-propanediol, and it divested its stake in the polysilicon maker Hemlock Semiconductor. Breen elected to keep DuPont’s electronic materials business, which he had been considering selling. In fact, DuPont is adding to this business, agreeing in March to purchase Laird Performance Materials, which makes materials for heat management in electronics, for $2.3 billion.

The Japanese chemical maker had a rough 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chemical sales were down 14%, and chemical operating profit dropped 32%. Toray Industries’ carbon fiber composites business saw a 23% sales drop. Airlines were decimated by COVID-19-related travel restrictions and halted aircraft orders, forcing the company to shut a composite materials plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Toray’s textile fiber business also struggled because of slack demand for apparel and industrial fibers during the pandemic. The performance wasn’t offset by brisk business in nonwoven fabrics for medical masks and gowns.

Shin-Etsu Chemical’s Shintech subsidiary calls itself the world’s largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) maker. A new investment, announced in January, should help it expand that lead. Shintech intends to spend $1.3 billion to build new capacity in Plaquemine, Louisiana, for PVC and its precursors chlorine and vinyl chloride. The company will complete a previously announced project—of similar cost and scope—at the site this year. Strengthening another business in which it has a strong position, Shin-Etsu will spend $285 million to expand photoresist output in Taiwan and Japan.

Recently, Evonik Industries has been favoring small acquisitions that provide access to new technology. In June, it inked an agreement to buy Infinitec Activos for an undisclosed sum. Infinitec specializes in delivery methods—such as peptide-studded gold and sapphire nanoparticles, lipid vesicles, and nanoscale alginate hydrocolloid capsules—for cosmetic ingredients. In November, Evonik bought Houston-based Porocel Group, a provider of refinery catalysts and catalyst regeneration services, for $210 million. Evonik has built a burgeoning business in lipids for the delivery of messenger RNA (mRNA) used as a COVID-19 vaccine. And it recently launched a collaboration with Stanford University to develop a degradable polymer–based system for delivering mRNA therapeutics. In more traditional industrial chemistry, the company is building a $470 million plant in Marl, Germany, for making nylon 12, a high-end polymer critical for automotive applications such as brake lines. Evonik is considering the sale of its superabsorbent polymer unit, which employs 800 people.

Reliance Industries has been trying to sell a 20% stake in its refining and chemical business to Saudi Aramco, but talks are going slowly. To ease the deal and allow for other transactions, such as an initial public offering of the business, Reliance is now carving the business into a stand-alone firm. It expects to complete the process by year’s end. But Reliance, India’s largest private sector company, isn’t losing interest in chemicals. Just last month, the firm announced a massive investment in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, with Abu Dhabi National Oil to build chlorine, ethylene dichloride, and polyvinyl chloride plants.

Covestro spun off of Bayer in 2015 with just two main chemistries: polyurethanes and polycarbonates. The company finally made a major diversification move in April with its $1.8 billion purchase of DSM’s resin and functional materials business, which generated sales in 2019 of about $1.2 billion. In the transaction, Covestro is getting 3D-printing materials, antireflective coatings for photovoltaic panels, adhesives for recyclable carpets, acrylic resins for paints, and optical fiber coatings. In its core business, Covestro is spending $50 million to build a plant in Map Ta Phut, Thailand, by the end of next year that makes its Vulkollan polyurethane elastomers.

Shell Chemicals returns to the Global Top 50 after a 5-year hiatus because it is disclosing its chemical sales figures again. The return comes as the larger Shell organization plans massive changes that will profoundly impact both its chemical and oil businesses. Shell plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, meaning it will have to reduce, or offset, all its greenhouse gas emissions. It will redefine itself as something other than an oil company. Its 13 refineries will become 6 energy and chemical “parks” that will increasingly supply renewable energy and chemicals produced from alternative feedstocks. Shell is part of a consortium that will build a water electrolysis plant in Germany to make green hydrogen. The firm is replacing 16 ethylene steam cracker furnaces in Moerdijk, the Netherlands, with 8 new ones to reduce carbon emissions by 10%. Shell is collaborating with Dow to replace conventional gas-fired ethylene furnaces with electrically heated ones that run on renewable power. And it is starting to use synthetic crude oil derived from waste plastics at its ethylene cracker in Norco, Louisiana.

The Norwegian fertilizer maker aims to get into the business of ammonia fuel for shipping and other industries. Yara plans to install water electrolysis units at its Porsgrunn, Norway, facility to generate the hydrogen it needs to make about 500,000 metric tons per year of ammonia. The plant currently generates hydrogen from natural gas. The electricity for the process would come from Norway’s grid, already almost completely renewable thanks to the country’s expansive hydroelectric power resources. Yara wants to produce such green ammonia outside Norway, too. In Pilbara, Australia, it plans to make ammonia with solar power. And in Sluiskil, the Netherlands, it is studying ammonia based on offshore wind.

Mitsui Chemicals is increasingly emphasizing sustainability. In June, the Japanese company announced that it will investigate, with BASF, the efficacy of the chemical recycling of plastics—such as using pyrolysis to break them down into an ethylene cracker feedstock. Mitsui is also spending $370 million to triple capacity for the polyurethane raw material methylene diphenyl diisocyanate in Yeosu, South Korea. The company is seeing increased demand for the product in energy-saving insulation. In a small acquisition in October to build on its eyeglass lens business, Mitsui acquired Cotec, which makes hydro­phobic and antireflective ophthalmic lens coatings.

Solvay has been trimming its portfolio to focus on specialty chemicals. In a major recent move along these lines, the company is carving out its soda ash unit into a separate business, a possible precursor to divesting the operation, which generates about $1.75 billion in annual sales. The business is Solvay’s oldest, dating back to 1863, when Ernest Solvay developed a process to make soda ash out of brine and limestone. Now the mineral is also extracted from trona, which Solvay mines in Green River, Wyoming. In addition, the company completed the sale of a basket of businesses to the private equity firm Latour Capital in March. Those businesses include a barium and strontium carbonate unit, a sodium percarbonate business, and a barium chemical joint venture with Chemical Products. In 2020, Solvay sold its nylon 6,6 business to BASF.

Indorama built itself up into one of the world’s largest chemical companies via aggressive growth in the polyester chain, both by buying businesses and by constructing massive new plants. Now the Thai company is looking to diversify. In 2020, it bought Huntsman’s intermediates and surfactant business, which makes surfactants and ethanolamines. And it is negotiating the purchase of Oxiteno, the specialty chemical arm of the Brazilian conglomerate Grupo Ultra and the second-largest producer of ethoxylates in the world. Indorama is also developing its capabilities in recycling. It is buying CarbonLITE’s polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling plant in Dallas and building a US PET depolymerization plant with the Canadian start-up Loop Industries.

Johnson Matthey’s chemical sales edged up by over 12% during its fiscal year, in part owing to strong prices for precious metals such as platinum, which the company uses to make catalytic converters. JM, however, has been trying to evolve. Similar to how big oil companies like Shell are redefining themselves as alternative energy firms, JM is trying to pivot toward batteries and hydrogen. Earlier this year, for instance, the company announced it will build a second plant, in Vaasa, Finland, for a cathode material that contains lithium, cobalt, and nickel and that will be used in lithium-ion batteries. Additionally, JM is undertaking a “strategic review” of its pharmaceutical chemical business, which makes drug ingredients.

The Belgian firm, which focuses on metal-based chemicals, is undergoing changes. Its board appointed Mathias Miedreich to succeed Marc Grynberg as CEO later this year. Miedreich is an executive with the auto parts supplier Faurecia, where he led the Clean Mobility division. Consolidation in Umicore’s nickel and cobalt chemical business will see the company shed about 200 jobs. Much like its rival Johnson Matthey, Umicore has been trying to diversify away from catalytic converters for gasoline vehicles and focus on electric cars. In May, it signed a cross-licensing agreement with BASF covering more than 100 families of patents relating to battery cathode active materials and their precursors. Umicore is also working with the firm Anglo American to develop platinum-group-metal-based catalysts that aid the storage of hydrogen in fuel-cell vehicles. The technology stores hydrogen with a chemical carrier rather than compression.

The Dutch company has been steering away from traditional chemical sectors and toward nutrition and health. In April, DSM sold its resin and functional materials business to Covestro for $1.8 billion. The unit makes 3D-printing materials, antireflective coatings for photovoltaic panels, acrylic resins for paints, and optical fiber coatings. DSM is holding on to its engineering resin business, which makes nylon and other high-end polymers, as well as its Dyneema ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene fiber business. These operations make up less than 20% of DSM’s overall sales. After the Covestro transaction, DSM invested $100 million in the personal nutrition start-up Hologram Sciences. In March, it agreed to acquire Amyris’s fermentation-derived flavor and fragrance ingredient line for $150 million.

The French firm has been trying to migrate toward the high end of the specialty chemical spectrum. In May, Arkema completed the sale of its polymethyl methacrylate business to the styrenic polymer maker Trinseo for $1.4 billion. The business generated sales of about $620 million in 2020. In June, Arkema turned around and announced two initiatives to increase production of the insulation foam-blowing agent hydrofluoroolefin-1233zd, which has lower global warming potential than current blowing agents. Arkema is spending $60 million to expand capacity in Calvert City, Kentucky, and is contracting with chemical maker Zibo Aofan to make it in China. In January, Bostik, Arkema’s adhesives arm, invested $11 million to form Crackless Monomer Company with the Taiwanese cyanoacrylate maker Cartell Chemical.

Hanwha Solutions has been growing prodigiously recently, mostly owing to its burgeoning solar materials business. The South Korean company is also branching out into other sustainable activities. For instance, it will begin supplying process water—heated to about 95 °C—to Lotte Chemical’s Ulsan, South Korea, plant, where the water will provide the energy for an absorptive refrigeration system. The companies say the setup will cut carbon dioxide emissions. In its core materials business, the company says it will double the production of for hydrogenated resins—used in adhesives—by the end of this year. The company entered that business only in 2019 to compete with the big players ExxonMobil and Eastman Chemical.

The US chemical company is making a large divestiture with the $800 million sale of its tire additives business to the private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners. The deal includes many products that Eastman got in 2012 when it bought Solutia for $4.8 billion, including Crystex insoluble sulfur and Santoflex antidegradants. Eastman is jumping into the chemical recycling of polyethylene terephthalate in a big way, spending $250 million on a plant at its flagship facility in Kingsport, Tennessee, that will use methanolysis to break down as much as 100,000 metric tons per year of the polymer. The company intends to use the resultant dimethyl terephthalate and ethylene glycol to make specialty polyesters.

Recent years have seen Chinese petrochemical producers, often involved in the polyester supply chain, join the Global Top 50. Hengli Petrochemical is one of those firms. And now Rongsheng Petrochemical is another. The company is one of the largest producers of purified terephthalic acid in the world, with 13 million metric tons of capacity at plants in Dalian, Ningbo, and Hainan, China. It also makes polyester resin and fiber. It is an investor in Zhejiang Petrochemical, a large oil refinery and petrochemical complex that is currently starting up.

Sustainability continues to be a focus for the Austrian petrochemical maker. In June, the company signed an agreement to buy oil from Renasci Oostende Recycling, which uses a thermal process to break down postconsumer plastic. Borealis will turn this feedstock into plastics again at its complex in Porvoo, Finland. Borealis also started up a demonstration unit at its polyethylene plant in Antwerp, Belgium, to test a heat-recovery technology developed by the start-up Qpinch. The technology is modeled on the adenosine triphosphate–adenosine diphosphate cycle in biology. Separately, Borealis put its fertilizer business up for sale in February.

The Houston-based chemical maker has the second-largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) business in the world, behind Japan’s Shin-Etsu Chemical. Westlake is now integrating this business further downstream—a common move for PVC makers—with the purchase of the North American building product business of Australia’s Boral for $2.15 billion. The business makes about $1 billion per year worth of roofing, siding, trim, shutters, windows, and decorative stone per year. Westlake already has about $1.4 billion in annual sales of building products such as PVC pipe. Much of that business came with the company’s 2016 purchase of PVC rival Axiall.

Nutrien got a new CEO in May when Mayo Schmidt replaced Chuck Magro. Schmidt had been chair of the Canadian fertilizer maker’s board since 2019 and before that was CEO of the Canadian agribusiness Viterra. Magro had led Nutrien and its predecessor Agrium since 2014. Because of tight supplies of potash, Nutrien pledged in June to raise production at its six potash mines. Like a few other big fertilizer makers, Nutrien is developing low-carbon ammonia as a fuel. It is one of 15 partners, led by the nonprofit RTI International, working with the US Department of Energy to develop a demonstration facility for low- and zero-carbon ammonia. Nutrien already produces about 1 million metric tons of low-carbon ammonia annually in the US and Canada.

It has been a year of portfolio moves for Lanxess. In February, the German company announced its first big acquisition since it bought the US specialty chemical maker Chemtura in 2017. Lanxess agreed to purchase Emerald Kalama Chemical, the world’s largest producer of benzoic acid, for $1.1 billion from the private equity firm American Securities. The Vancouver, Washington–based company had 2020 sales of $425 million. In January, Lanxess agreed to buy the fungicide specialist Intace and the disinfectant firm Theseo, both based in France. And in June it sold its organic leather chemical business for $93 million—plus potential milestones—to TFL Ledertechnik, a leather chemical specialist.

In a rather bucolic sustainability initiative, Tosoh is using wood from trees pruned at public facilities in Shunan City, Japan, to generate power in its nearby chemical plant. The Japanese company is making the environment a priority in its broader business as well. It plans to spend $90 million to renovate and expand its Tokyo Research Center by 2026. The upgrade will include a building dedicated to advanced organic materials research. And citing heightened environmental regulations, the company says it will end production next year of chlorinated paraffins, which are used as flame retardants and plasticizers.

DIC completed the acquisition of BASF’s pigment business in June for $1.4 billion. The deal was announced in 2019 but took considerable time to make it past antitrust authorities. Indeed, the US Federal Trade Commission forced DIC to sell its pigment plant in Bushy Park, South Carolina, at an $83 million loss. Separately, DIC’s Sun Chemical subsidiary launched a manganese-based curing agent for alkyd coatings and inks. It’s meant to replace toxic cobalt compounds.