News

Surfactants: It is a time of change in the surfactants sector. Increasingly, demanding customer requirements in both the industrial and personal care areas, as well as the growing importance of environmental considerations, are encouraging change right across the sector. Mirroring the trend in the rest of the industry, M&A activity has been intense over the past year or so as we move towards fewer but larger players. The sector is consolidating in an attempt to improve its profitability, a phenomenon seen throughout the speciality sector which is making life harder for the smaller player. Food additives: The market for food additives is characterized by increasing sophistication with demand mainly propelled by the rapidly growing processed foods sector. As lifestyles change and food processing technology evolves, there is increasing demand for a variety of food additives, ranging from sweeteners to thickeners. ’Consumer preference in foods and flavours is continually changing due to fashion, lifestyle changes and the focus on healthy eating,’ says Manoj Gujral, business director and general manager at Oxford Chemicals, a company that specializes in the manufacture and supply of speciality aroma chemicals to the global market for flavours and fragrances.


News
Solutia reviewing options for phosphorus derivatives business St. Louis, 1 July 1998: Solutia (NYSE:SOI) said today that it is reviewing options for its phosphorus derivatives business, including sale, alliance and joint venture, and has retained the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs to assist in the evaluation.
"The phosphorus derivatives business has been profitable for Solutia," said Michael E. Miller, Solutia vice chairman, "but it's clear that global consolidation in some form in this industry is likely to happen. To fulfill management's commitment to the Board of Directors and to our stockholders, it's imperative that we explore value-enhancing opportunities for our businesses". News from the September issue of Performance chemicals international Surfactants: It is a time of change in the surfactants sector.
Increasingly, demanding customer requirements in both the industrial and personal care areas, as well as the growing importance of environmental considerations, are encouraging change right across the sector. Mirroring the trend in the rest of the industry, M&A activity has been intense over the past year or so as we move towards fewer but larger players. The sector is consolidating in an attempt to improve its profitability, a phenomenon seen throughout the speciality sector which is making life harder for the smaller player.
Food additives: The market for food additives is characterized by increasing sophistication with demand mainly propelled by the rapidly growing processed foods sector. As lifestyles change and food processing technology evolves, there is increasing demand for a variety of food additives, ranging from sweeteners to thickeners. 'Consumer preference in foods and flavours is continually changing due to fashion, lifestyle changes and the focus on healthy eating,' says Manoj Gujral, business director and general manager at Oxford Chemicals, a company that specializes in the manufacture and supply of speciality aroma chemicals to the global market for flavours and fragrances.
Ireland: Ireland is becoming a key location for the European pharmaceutical and chemical industry. More than 120 overseas companies employ 15 000 people in this sector in Ireland. In 1997, pharmaceutical products worth more than $7bn were exported. This represents 15% of total exports and makes Ireland one of the world's largest exporters of pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals--sectors that dominate the Irish chemical industry. The heavy and petrochemical industry is not well represented due to a lack of raw materials and the capital-intensive nature of this end of the industry.
Catalysts: Catalysts remain one of the more innovative areas of chemistry with new technologies being developed that could have dramatic impacts on he economics of chemical processes worldwide. In the USA, a researcher has suggested a method of using combinatorial chemistry to discover new solid-state catalysts. In a paper published in the latest edition of Nature magazine, Selim Sankan of the chemical engineering department at the University of California, Los Angeles, suggests a 'mass screening' technique that could speed up the current trial and error process. The pharamaceutical industry already uses combinatorial synthesis methods, in combination with mass-screening techniques, to speed up the discovery of new drugs.
Technical alert: A US consortium has announced what it describes as a 'a major milestone' in the development of biotechnological routes to chemicals from renewable resources. The consortium members are Genencor International, Eastman Chemical, Electrosynthesis Company, MicroGenomics and Argonne National Laboratory, a Department of Energy (DOE) lab. The first target chemical for the process is ascorbic acid, which has a world market worth $600m. The consortium says the process could cut the capital cost by half compared to the conventional Reichstein process. For a full listing see RBI's web site http://www.reedbusiness.com tions. It shows which companies performed well in 1997 and points to future strengths. The analysis issue contains detailed financial information on the top 30 companies in the chemical industry. It ranks companies by sales and gives net profits and net margins, and research and development and capital spending figures. Productivity is an important element of the analysis, and the productivity data published rank companies by sales per employee and give figures for value added, employee numbers and employee costs.
The industry is facing difficult times now, and Union Carbide is not alone is issuing a third quarter 1998 profits warning. However, average industry sales rose by 7% last year. Cash flows were 9% higher and pre-tax profits up by 12%.  (0) 181 652   8952 Top five chemical companies generated $134.6 bn in sales in 1997, new analysis shows The five largest chemical companies in the world generated sales of $134.6 billion in 1997 and profits before tax totalling $15.5 billion, according to Chemical Insight's analysis of annual financial performance in the chemical industry. Combined net profits for the top five were $7.7 billion.
The 1997 analysis puts four US companies at the head of the performance league table--Union Carbide, Georgia Gulf, Rohm & Haas, and Nalco. These are followed by one of Europe's largest petrochemical producers, Borealis, and Britain's pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and speciality chemicals producer, Zeneca. The chemical industry is heading for hard times, but the analysis for 1997 shows just how much stronger some of the European producers have become and their good standing--in 1997 at least--among their peers. This critical comparison looks at the performance of companies across the globe. It assesses performance according to 32 financial measures and ratios, and looks at the industry in ways which compare year-on-year performance, profitability, productivity and financial health. The analysis is all about comparisons across national boundaries, regions and accounting conven-Patent application fees abolished Small firms and private individuals benefitted most when the United Kingdom Patent Office abolished the application fee for patents from October 1998. The Office is the first in the industrialized world not to charge a patent application fee.
Abolition of the filing fee forms part of a 20% cut in Patent Office fees that came into effect on October. Other reductions include a cut in the trademark application fee from 225 to 200, a cut in trademark registration renewal from 250 to 200, and cuts in patent renewal fees by an average of 18%.
The cuts assist entry into the systems of patents, trademarks and registered designs, and encourage their use by small firms and private individuals. The greatest savings to be made are in patent renewals in the earlier years, when companies are frequently still in the phase of product development and have yet to make a return on their investment. Savings to industry will equal 12 million, or 20% of the Patent Office's fee income.
Welcoming the fee reductions, Patent Office chief executive Paul Hartnack said: 'The reductions in Patent Office fees make a significant contribution to the competitiveness of British industry, particularly among the small firms which are the source of innovation and creativity in Britain'.
'The fee reductions have been made possible by the continuous and successful efforts of management and staff to raise the quality of service and reduce unit costs since the Patent Office relocated to Newport, South Wales, in 1991'. Details of the fee reductions are available on the Patent Office Web site at www.patent.gov.uk/snews/notices/redfee.html. Copies of the statutory instruments are available fi'om the Stationery Office Bookshops and from the Patent Office. They are The Trade Marks (Fees) Rules 1998 (SI 1998 No 1776), 1.10; The Registered Designs (Fees) Rules 1998(SI 1998 No 1777), 1.10 and The Patents (Fees) Rules 1998 (SI 1998  21st century requirements to monitor our environment prompts action by The Royal Society of Chemistry Modern instrumentation has allowed us to push back the fi'ontiers of detection such that we are able to determine incredibly small anaounts of natural and anthropogenic pollutants and contaminants in our environment, whether they are in our homes, workplaces, cities, the countryside or the oceans. The fact that we can detect these pollutants in minuscule amounts does not necessarily mean that the levels present in the environment are harmful to our health or well being, but it does drive world-wide legislation on these substances. Theretbre, there is a requirement to monitor, ascertain the sources, prevent the release, develop better detection methods and make properly assessed scientific judgements on the toxicity, exposure and risk assessment of the pollutants to which we are exposed in our daily lives. The Royal Society of Chemistry has recognized the importance of these 21st century requirements, and that it is essential to promote and disseminate the knowledge of newly developed technologies for monitoring our various environments. Therefore, it is launching the Journal of Environmental Monitoring (JEM) which is dedicated to assessing exposure and health risks through the latest developments in measurement science. The journal, with the first issue due to be published in February 1999 and then bi-monthly thereafter, is unique in that it aims to publish all the relevant information on this subject area in one source. This journal is intended for environmental and health professionals in industry, and officials ii'om governmental and regulatory agencies as well as research scientists interested in the environment.
"I think the journal will be of interest to all analytical scientists involved with environmental monitoring issues.
Currently at NIOSH, environmental monitoring is one of the key components of the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA)". Dr E. R. Kennedy, NIOSH, Cincinnati, USA.
"Environmental contaminants are becoming the No. public concern". Mr J. V. Dutton, Consultant, UK.
"The launching of a journal dedicated to environmental monitoring with some emphasis on legislative issues is an excellent idea". Dr. Philippe Quevauviller, European Commission, DGXII SM&T Programme, Belgium.
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society with a worldwide membership of 46000. it has as its main objectives the advancement of the science of chemistry and its applications, and the maintenance of high standards of competence and integrity among practising chemists. The RSC markets a comprehensive range of high quality information products and services. public and incorporated Micromass' 1998 organic MS users' meeting, the first event of its kind to be organized by the company since its re-formation in 1996.
The seminar saw a move from central Manchester, the traditional home of the Micromass user meeting, to Shrigley Hall in Cheshire. From 18th to 20th October 1998, this impressive 19th century country mansion housed an international panel of invited speakers and Micromass users, presenting an insight into emerging MS-based strategies in proteomics and contemporary drug discovery]development. Speakers included Roland Annan (SmithKline Beecham, PA, USA), Walter Blackstock (Glaxo Wellcome, UK), Daryl Pappin (Imperial Cancer Research Foundation, UK) and Jeffrey Kiplinget (Pfizer, Groton, CT, USA).
Originally planned as a 'stand-alone' meeting to be hosted, earlier in 1998, by Glaxo-Wellcome, the proteomics sessions were, through unexpectedly popular demand, rescheduled at this larger venue. Protein identification using MS and bio-informatics is becoming