Biodiesel plant
BioSelect Fuels and Chevron have opened their joint biodiesel plant in Galveston, Texas.  The plant is one of the first large-scale biodiesel production facilities in North America.  The plant, currently in production, has an initial capacity of 20 million gallons/year, but can easily be expanded to 100 million gallons/year.

Acquisition
State Industrial Products acquired Ohio Soap Products, an industrial cleaning products manufacturer.  The privately owned company is estimated to have had annual sales of more than $100 million.

Acquisition
AstraZeneca has acquired DSM Biologics’ manufacturing plant in Montreal, Canada.  AstraZeneca will start to re-commission the facility immediately and expects to start full-scale production by 2009.  The facility has 66,000 square feet and will be used to manufacture antibody drug candidates for clinical trials, serving the whole of the AstraZeneca group.

Polyetheramines
Huntsman has completed the mechanical component of its first Asia-Pacific polyetheramines plant and expects to introduce feedstock in mid-June with commercial operations beginning by the third quarter.  The $40 million plant in Jurong Island, Singapore, has an annual capacity of 15,000 tons of polyetheramines.  The plant will produce using Huntsman’s proprietary amine technology.

Up for sale
Bain Capital has put Netherlands-based paints and coatings firm SigmaKalonon up for sale.  Likely bidders include PPG Industries, ICI, Sherwin-Williams as well as Berkshire Hathaway.  SigmaKalonon is a worldwide player in decorative, marine, protective and industrial coatings.  It currently employs around 10,000 in 40 different countries, focusing mainly on the European, Asian and African markets.  In 2006, the company had sales of more than $2.6 billion.

Acquisition
Carlyle Group has agreed to acquire specialty inorganic chemicals, catalysts and engineered glass company PQ Corp. for $5.1 billion from CCMP Capital Advisors.

Pigments and percarbonates
Finland-based Kemira plans to sell its pigments and sodium percarbonate operations so that it can focus on its core businesses of pulp and paper, water and coatings.  The organic acid and derivatives operation, ChemSolutions, which is currently part of the company’s specialty chemical division, will become a part of the pulp and paper segment on July 1.  The company hopes to complete the sale and restructuring by the end of the year.

Agreements
France’s Air Liquide has signed two agreements with Russia’s Mikron.  The first deal with Mikron, Russia’s largest semiconductor manufacturing company, involves a long-term contract for carrier gases.  The second covers the sale of equipment and the turnkey installation of electronic specialty gases and various materials.  This makes Air Liquide the first gas solutions provider to Russia’s new semiconductor industry.

Investment
Billionaire investor George Soros is planning to help finance a $900 million ethanol project in southwestern Brazil with his own funds.  This project involves the construction of three ethanol plants in Mato Grosso do Sul, with production being able to reach 1 billion liters/year in five years.