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UK REACH deadlines to be extended

Following consultation with stakeholders over the summer, the UK Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has decided to extend the deadline for registering substances with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) under UK REACH, the legislation that replaces EU REACH, by three years. This is subject to consultation with devolved governments in Scotland and Wales. As a result, the new deadlines will be:

First US site for Oleon

Oloechemicals specialist Oleon has acquired a blending plant in Conroe in the Houston area of Texas, its first in North America. The company said that this will be “the cornerstone for its industrial activity in the Americas with an expected initial investment of more than $50 million”. The company has other sites in Belgium, Germany, France and Malaysia.

Lonza starts up at Nansha

Lonza has started up the mid-scale manufacturing assets at its API facility in Nansha in China’s Guangdong province. The site is fully integrated within Lonza’s global small molecules manufacturing network and this expansion has increased employee numbers there by 70 to around 330.

Azelis buys New Zealand firm

Azelis has agreed to acquire Chemiplas Agencies, an Auckland-based distributor of speciality chemicals, plastic raw materials and ingredients in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. This is expected to close before the end of Q1 2023, after customary closing conditions are fulfilled.

Four SOCMA awards for MFG

MFG Chemical, a speciality and custom chemical manufacturer, has won four awards for plant safety and performance improvement at two of its three sites in Dalton, Georgia, from SOCMA.

The Kimberly Park plant won the Silver Award for EHS&S Planning & Operations, having completed a major improvement project to facility process equipment, piping and equipment safety systems which it said substantially improved process controls and automation; redundancy in process cooling water; and, the mitigation of risk from runaway reaction, among other things.

Brenntag bid for Univar confirmed

Following reports by Bloomberg, it has been confirmed that Brenntag and Univar Solutions have held preliminary discussions regarding a potential acquisition. Neither company has commented further beyond stressing that discussions are at an early stage and there is no certainty of completion.

The deal, if completed, would be Brenntag’s largest ever and would bring together the world’s largest and second largest chemical distributors. Brenntag and Univar had sales of €14.4 billion and $9.5 billion respectively last year.

SBTi validates three firms’ climate targets

The Science Based Target initiative (SBTi), a collaboration between the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute, the Climate Disclosure Project and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to drive corporate climate action, has validated the latest greenhouse gas reduction (GHG) targets of three chemical companies as both science-based and aligned with the UN Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature rise to no more than 1.5ºC this century.

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