Italian-based speciality chemicals group Italmatch has signed a binding agreement to purchase the majority of Alcolina, a Brazilian company specialised in water treatment for bioethanol, sugar production and industrial applications, including paint, pulp and paper. Terms were not disclosed.

Alcolina has two manufacturing sites at Cravinhos and Rio Lago, 80 employees and it had a turnover of €35 million in 2023. Italmatch said that the company is “strongly complementary” to its own current product portfolio. The company now generates 5% of its sales in Latin America.

Clariant and Italmatch Chemicals have both announced investments in phosphorus-based flame retardants in China in the past two weeks as demand continues to grow from growth in the use of engineering plastics in the e-mobility, 5G communications, transportation, and electrical and electronic segments.

Two Western players, Italy’s Italmatch Chemicals and Colonial Chemicals of the US, have recently signed investment plans that will see them manufacturing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for the wider Gulf region. Terms were not disclosed in either case.

Together with Biolab Arabia, Genoa-based Italmatch has created a 60-40 joint venture called Italmatch Biolab Industrial. This will make performance additives for applications in water and process treatment, and the oil and gas sector, with a focus on thermal and membrane based desalination, at Al-Jubail.