WACKER Opens Innovation Center and Regional Headquarters in Michigan

ANN ARBOR, MI – Wacker Chemical Corp. (WACKER) recently held a grand opening of its new Innovation Center and Regional Headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Corporate leadership hosted Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, along with several other state, county and township officials, in conducting a ribbon-cutting ceremony and touring the site. Construction of the 140,000-square-foot site began in December 2020, and WACKER team members moved into the building in mid-April 2022.

The technology campus covers 18 acres and serves as the hub of leadership and innovation for WACKER’s North and Central Americas (NCA) region. The state-of-the-art center currently houses more than 200 team members, including the company’s NCA senior leadership team, chemists, IT and other technical experts, and support functions.

The $50-million-plus investment allows chemists, scientists and senior leadership that had previously worked out of three separate Michigan locations to collaborate in a single space and provides room for the expansion and growth expected by WACKER. The Innovation Center includes world-class labs, a full-service cafeteria, a 24/7 fitness center, and open collaborative work spaces.

WACKER will continue to produce elastomers, silicone fluids and silicone emulsions out of its existing operations in Adrian, Michigan, where the regional headquarters was located previously. The Adrian site, established in 1969, remains a growing base of operations for the approximately 275 employees managing production there for the company’s WACKER SILICONES division.

“We are pleased to formally open this world-class Innovation Center today to our valued partners,” said Wacker Chemical Corp. President & CEO David Wilhoit. “The site will serve as an important anchor for our growing operations across North and Central America. This area is home to dozens of research facilities and educational institutions, making it one of the leading communities in Michigan and the entire nation for R&D, enabling the company to network with, and recruit from among, the best high-tech talent in the nation.”

PPG Opens Architectural Paints and Coatings Color Automation Laboratory

MILAN – PPG has opened a new architectural paint and coatings color automation laboratory in Milan, Italy. The $2.1 million (€2 million) facility will reportedly increase the speed of developing paint color formulations.

The facility will provide up to 100,000 paint color matches annually, providing master paint color formulations for new colors and existing colors when they are reformulated. The laboratory’s automated system dispenses colorants and base paint samples, mixes them, applies them and measures them, without manual inputs.

“The new paint color automation laboratory will further strengthen our leadership in color and reflects our goal of providing innovative solutions to address our customers’ needs,” said Rita Di Leo, PPG Color Application Engineering Manager, Milan. “It allows an increased number of products, improved paint color accuracy and faster time to market for new color collections.”

The Milan facility is a European hub for PPG product development and a global center of excellence for color hosting laboratories for paints and coatings for the automotive refinish, architectural, packaging and industrial markets. This includes two color-matching automation lines for automotive refinish paints and coatings, and a new research and development facility for powder coatings that includes a design and color showroom.

EMCO Chemical Distributors and Ecoat Announce Distribution Agreement

PLEASANT PRARIE, WI – Ecoat and EMCO Chemical Distributors have signed an exclusive agreement for distribution of Ecoat’s product line throughout the U.S. Midwest.

Ecoat is an innovation-driven company that produces bio-based, eco-friendly binders for the coatings industry. Its products and solutions address the growing need for sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives by providing bio-sourced and non-toxic binders that improve the carbon footprint of coatings and provide higher quality for end users.

The cooperation with EMCO began in April 2022. It includes the distribution of a range of bio-based alkyd emulsions primarily for architectural and wood paints (Secoia^® and Inokem^®), as well as alkyd urethane dispersions (Inokem UR), and water-dispersible alkyds used for wood and metal coatings.

“EMCO is pleased to include Ecoat’s water-based bio-based binders and alkyd emulsions in our portfolio. We continue to look for leaders in environmentally friendly and sustainable products, and Ecoat brings new technology to the coatings market,” said Mark Polen, Sales and Marketing Manager at EMCO Chemical Distributors.

Olivier Moreillon, Business Director North America at Ecoat, added, “EMCO is an experienced partner with outstanding customer services throughout the whole value chain of the paints and coatings industry. In addition to its well-structured and experienced sales network, EMCO provides customer-driven solutions with a technical service center, many warehouses, its own truck fleet and packaging capabilities. We are looking forward to offering the entire value added associated with this cooperation to our customers and to starting the shift of the U.S. coatings industry to sustainable solutions.”

Teknos Receives EcoVadis Gold Medal

HELSINKI – Teknos has been granted the EcoVadis gold medal for its sustainability performance in 2021. This places Teknos within the top 5% of companies rated by EcoVadis across the globe. Over 90,000 companies in over 160 countries have been assessed on the EcoVadis platform.

In EcoVadis companies are assessed based on four categories: Environment, Labor and Human Rights, Ethics, and Sustainable Procurement. Teknos performed best in the Environment category with a score of 80/100 and reached a good level in the Labor and Human Rights, and Sustainable Procurement categories.

In its sustainability program, Teknos will continue to focus on mitigating climate impact, ensuring the safety and well-being of its personnel and other stakeholders, and finding sustainable solutions to tackle raw material scarcity not only in procurement, but also with life cycle thinking. Participation in EcoVadis also allows for transparency to the whole value chain as it enables Teknos customers to monitor Teknos’ sustainability performance and manage sustainability risks.

Teknos reports that sustainability is a cornerstone of its strategy, and the company aims at being the most sustainable coatings solutions provider in the industry. In the past few years, the company has invested heavily in developing its sustainability practices.

Paula Salastie, CEO and owner of Teknos Group, commented, “We are pleased that our persistent work in developing our operations and products to be more sustainable has been recognized with the EcoVadis gold medal. To be included in the top 5% of all companies is a great milestone for us and proves our strong commitment towards sustainability for our external and internal stakeholders. Being able to improve from bronze to gold level within just a few years is a significant step forward and shows us that our direction is right. At the same time, this recognition will also inspire us to aim even higher.”

PETRONAS Chemicals Group to Acquire Perstorp Group

MALMÖ, Sweden – Specialty chemicals provider Perstorp Group announced that it will be acquired by PETRONAS Chemicals Group Berhad (PCG). PCG signed a Securities Purchase Agreement on May 14, 2022, to acquire the entire equity interest in Perstorp Holding AB. The agreement was signed with Financière Forêt S.à.r.l, a company under PAI Partners, a European private equity firm.

The acquisition values Perstorp Group at an enterprise value of €2,300.0 million (approximately $2,434 million). The completion of the acquisition is subject to relevant regulatory and shareholders’ approvals.

Established more than 140 years ago, Perstorp is a leading niche specialty chemicals player that develops sustainable solutions with focus on the resins and coatings, engineered fluids, and animal nutrition markets. The company has a global sales presence; seven state-of-the art manufacturing sites in Europe, the United States and China (the eighth plant will be ready in India in 2023); and three R&D centers worldwide with approximately 1,500 employees serving more than 2,600 customers globally.

“We find Perstorp attractive for their expansive range of products, established customer base as well as their market leadership in selected chemicals, which are complementary to PCG. It is our intention to make Perstorp our growth platform into the specialty chemicals field. With Perstorp’s holistic and innovative approach to reduce environmental impact in line with PCG’s aim for positive environmental and social contribution, we are confident that together we can accelerate our sustainability journey towards circular economy and carbon neutrality by 2050,” said PCG Managing Director and CEO, Ir. Mohd Yusri Mohamed Yusof.

PCG’s aim to become a preferred chemical company providing innovative customer solutions is based on a clear strategy: to strengthen its basic petrochemicals portfolio and to selectively diversify into derivatives, specialty chemicals and solutions. In the execution of this strategy, PCG reports that the acquisition of Perstorp group marks the creation of a significant specialty chemicals portfolio, while enhancing its overall earnings.

Jan Secher, President and CEO of Perstorp, commented, “We are excited to become part of the PETRONAS family. I see a strong commonality in values and priorities for how to take our respective businesses forward, meeting the challenges and opportunities of the future. By tapping into PCG’s strength and market-leading position in the Asia-Pacific region, we are confident that Perstorp can continue to develop into its next phase of growth. Being part of PCG means Perstorp gets the scale to increase the pace of innovation and accelerate our sustainable transformation, which is at the forefront of the chemical industry. PCG’s and Perstorp’s businesses complement each other very well.”

BMW Group to Use BASF Coatings with Renewable Raw Materials

MUENSTER, Germany – BASF recently reported that the BMW Group is the first carmaker to place its trust in more sustainable automotive OEM coatings certified according to BASF’s biomass balance approach. The BMW Group has chosen to use BASF Coatings’ CathoGuard^® 800 ReSource e-coat at its plants in Leipzig, Germany, and Rosslyn, South Africa, and the iGloss^® matte ReSource clearcoat throughout Europe. Using these more sustainable product versions for vehicle coatings enables carbon dioxide (CO₂) avoidance of around 40% per coating layer, which will reduce the amount of CO₂ emitted in the plants by more than 15,000 metric tons by 2030.

“By reducing our use of fossil raw materials, we can conserve natural resources and lower CO₂ emissions at the same time. To achieve this, we are increasingly relying on sustainability innovations in our supplier network,” said Joachim Post, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for Purchasing and Supplier Network. “Innovative paints based on renewable raw materials are an important step in this direction.” The BMW Group produces an average of around 250,000 vehicles every year at its plants in Leipzig and Rosslyn.

In BASF’s biomass balance approach, renewable raw materials like bio-based naphtha and biomethane from organic waste are used as raw materials when manufacturing primary chemical products and are fed into the production Verbund. The proportion of bio-based raw materials is then arithmetically assigned to certain sales products according to a certified method. This attribution model is comparable with the principle of green electricity. An independent certification confirms that BASF has replaced the quantities of fossil resources required for the biomass-balanced product sold with renewable raw materials.

“As the largest provider of chemical products to the automotive industry, we are aware of our responsibility to support our customers with innovative, eco-efficient solutions. The biomass balance approach allows us to make our coatings solutions even more sustainable while retaining the same quality. We are delighted that the BMW Group has chosen to play a pioneering role in the automotive industry and that our products play a key part in helping it achieve its ambitious sustainability goals,” said Dr. Markus Kamieth, member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE.