Chemical distributor Ivanhoe Industries Inc. has been purchased by three former employees of Arkema, Totals former chemicals business. Jeffrey M. Snyder, William Tuszynski and Rafael A. Valle bought Ivanhoe from founder and president John S. Hoegl, who is retiring. Snyder, Tuszynski and Valle have more than 70 combined years of experience in the chemical industry, most of it at Arkema and its predecessor companies in the United States. They did not disclose terms of their acquisition. Based outs...

Crompton Corp. and Great Lakes Chemical Corp. received formal clearance from the European Commission June 15 for their proposed merger. The $1.8 billion deal now awaits votes by shareholders of both companies on July 1. The companies first announced their agreement on March 9, and in April completed the waiting period during which U.S. regulators would have had to state any objection. Last weeks nod from across the Atlantic means the merger has cleared any hurdles related to effects on competiti...

Cognis Corp. announced last week that it plans to form its oleochemicals business into a separate company on July 1. Previous statements about the plan triggered an ongoing four-month strike at its main U.S. factory in Cincinnati. The new company, named Cognis Oleochemicals LLC, will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Cognis Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of Cognis Deutschland GmbH, of Dusseldorf, Germany. Cognis processes plant oils into synthetic lubricants and ingredients for applications ranging fr...

No question that ExxonMobil is a big supplier of base oil to the lubricants industry. The company controls nearly one of every six barrels of mineral base oil capacity worldwide. It is nearly twice the size of the second-place supplier. It owns four of the 10 largest base oil plants on the planet. These facts and others were gleaned from LubesnGreases 2005 Guide to Global Base Oil Refining, a 22-by-33-inch wall chart. Developed in cooperation with British consulting firm Pathmaster Marketing Ltd...