Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania - Air Products and Chemicals Co. said 1 Dec that it has completed the sale of the assets of its polyurethane pre-polymers business, marketed as Airthane and Versathane to Coim USA Inc., for an undisclosed sum.
Included in the sale of the prepolymers business is Air Products' factory in Paulsboro, New Jersey, which it purchased in 1962 to mark its entrance into the chemical industry. About 40 employees make up the Paulsboro workforce.
The acquisition will allow Coim, a subsidiary of Italian polyurethane chemicals producer Coim SpA to complete its Imuthane product portfolio with established low free monomer technology, according to Lucio Siano, vice president and general manager of Coim.
He said the purchased operation "will benefit from (Coim's) up-stream integration provided by the state-of-the-art polyester manufacturing facility located in West Deptford, New Jersey."
Polyurethane prepolymers are used in a number of cast elastomer markets, including industrial tyres and wheels, printing rollers, cutting and metal-forming blankets, and custom parts.
Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania -based Air Products' urethane prepolymers business became expendable when the company decided to focus on its polyurethanes specialties business, said Bob Thomas, global business director, Performance Materials Division.
"We have high expectations for continued global growth for our Dabco and Polycat PU catalysts and surfactants, Versalink curatives, and our new Innovathane and Ancarez ISO products for the polyurea coatings and construction markets," he said.
Meanwhile, in early November Air Products, which operates out of 40 countries and had fiscal 2008 revenues of about $10 400 million, said it opened a specialty amines plant in Nanjing, China, that complements its existing capabilities needed to support the growing polyurethane additives market in the country and throughout Asia.
While Air Products has been expanding its reach, so too has Coim USA. Late last year, the Deptford-based business acquired Inolex Chemical Co.'s Lexorez and Lexad polyester polyols used to make polyurethane flexible foam.
Reporting by Mike McNulty, Rubber & Plastics News.
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