Hercules Inc. and Uniqema, a subsidiary of ICI Group, have agreed to extend their long-standing synthetic lubricants manufacturing agreement. Hercules will expand its Louisiana, Mo., plant to accommodate the agreement, the companies announced July 31.
The agreement covers production of the Emkarate RL synthetic polyol esters that Uniqema sells as lubricants for refrigeration and air conditioning applications in the compressor market. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
This is a mutually beneficial multi-year agreement. We anticipate the expansion of our synthetic lubricants capacity will be completed by the second quarter of 2007, said Paul Raymond, president of Hercules Paper Technologies and Ventures of Wilmington, Del. Uniqema and Hercules havehad a manufacturing agreement since the mid-1990s.
Rick Hanson, Uniqema’s vice president of sales, said, Our partnership with Hercules will allow us to meet the evolving demand requirements of the refrigeration and air conditioning market that continues to grow as the industry moves away from CFCs. Uniqema’s goal is to meet customer needs by investing in synthetic lubricant development with cutting edge technology. The Hercules and Uniqema agreement is one of the foundations to sustain Uniqema’s strategy, the company said.
The production expansion demonstrates Uniqemas long-term commitment to the synthetic refrigeration lubricants market, the company noted, and fits withits recent acquisition of the Icematic polyol ester business from BP.
Headquartered in Gouda, Netherlands, Uniqema supplies surfactants, functional ingredients and oleochemicals, including esters and polyalkylene glycols used as synthetic lubricant base stocks and additives. Its parent company, ICI Group, agreed in late June to sell the company to Britains Croda International Plc for 410 million (U.S. $758 million) in cash and assumption of debt. The sale is expected to be completed during the third quarter of this year.