Eka Chemicals is able to eke out a fine living by providing chemicals to, primarily, the paper and pulp industry. A division of Dutch chemicals colossus Akzo Nobel, it operates through two divisions: Pulp and Paper -- which itself is divided along geographic lines -- and Specialty Products. Eka's bleaching chemicals provide more than half of the company's total sales. The remaining portions of the Pulp and Paper unit provide everything from monitoring units for chem labs to coating additives.

Toagosei Co. is active in both organic and inorganic chemicals. The company's largest business segments produce acrylic acids and esters (used in fibers, rubber, and paper processors) and chloralkali chemicals, including caustic soda and chlorine. Toagosei also is a major producer of plastic products such as PVC pipe and couplings and other inorganic chemicals such as sulfuric acid (used in fertilizers) and industrial gases (oxygen and nitrogen) for medical use. The company also produces adhesives, including instant adhesive Aron Alpha, which is better known as Crazy Glue in the US. In 2010 Toagosei formed a joint venture with Mitsui Chemicals to produce ethylene carbonates for lithium ion batteries.

Sterling Chemicals, Inc. is a North American producer of selected petrochemicals used to manufacture a wide array of consumer goods and industrial products. Acetic acid is currently our primary product and we benefit from a long-term requirements contract with BP Amoco Chemical Company for this product. Our petrochemicals facility located in Texas City, TX, is strategically located on Galveston Bay and offers approximately 160 acres for future expansion by us, or by other companies that can benefit from our existing infrastructure, facilities, management and operations expertise.

For UOP, it's not necessarily what you make, it's how you make it. The subsidiary of Honeywell's Specialty Materials segment develops and licenses technologies for processing chemicals. The technologies mainly are used in petroleum-derived products and chemicals (such as ethylene and propylene), but also in the manufacture of products further downstream like plastics, detergents, and fibers. Three-quarters of the world's ethylene production is made using UOP technologies. UOP also produces catalysts, alumina adsorbents (used to purify gas and dry air), and molecular sieves. Until 2005 it had been a joint venture of Honeywell and Union Carbide (which is owned by Dow Chemical).

Brenntag North America can hook you up. One of the largest chemical distributors in North America, the company offers hundreds of industrial and specialty chemicals -- from acetic acid to zinc oxide -- and provides custom blending and packaging of chemicals in dry, liquid, or gaseous states. Customers include manufacturers in such industries as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, paints, electronics, pulp and paper, cosmetics, food and beverages, textiles, and water treatment. European private equity group BC Partners owns Brenntag, and thus Brenntag North America.

Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation is a diversified company that makes industrial gases, constructs air separation plants, manufactures gas-handling equipment (including welding tools and high-purity systems for semiconductor production), and house wares. The company markets its products to the food and beverage, shipbuilding, aerospace, chemical, and steel industries. The gas business makes up about two-thirds of its sales with the plant and gas equipment unit accounting for most of the rest. Taiyo Nippon Sanso also maintains the Thermos brand of vacuum bottles and insulated mugs throughout Asia. Subsidiary Matheson Tri-Gas operates in North America, Asia, and Europe.

SABIC Innovative Plastics is among the world's largest producers of high-performance polymers used bymanufacturers of electronics, office equipment, computer, and automotive. The company's units include Specialty Film & Sheet, which makes the polycarbonate sheet and film under the Lexan brand name; Polymershapes, a plastic film, sheet, and tube distributor; and Resins, a producer of all manner of plastic resins (the starting point in making most plastic materials). SABIC IP also owns LNP Engineering Plastics, a plastics compounding firm. The company was formed in 2007 when General Electric sold GE Plastics to Saudi Arabia's largest public company, SABIC, for $11 billion.

Borregaard has high regard for high timber. It is a top manufacturer of wood-based chemicals, including specialty cellulose, lignin, vanillin, bioethanol, and yeast products. The company's LignoTech unit makes natural thermoplastics (LignoPol) as alternatives to petroleum-based plastics. It also produces natural acids (SoftAcid). Its ChemCell unit is Europe's leading producer of specialty cellulose (a natural polymer) and also produces chloralkali chemicals such as caustic soda. Its Borregaard Synthesis unit produces fine chemicals for the pharmaceuticals industry and diphenols used in agrochemicals.

Solvay works to render its customers' problems solved. Solvay Chemicals International SA is part of the chemical sector of industrial giant Solvay SA, and accounts for about one-third of the parent company's business. The sector produces hydrogen peroxide, soda ash, sodium bicarbonate, and sodium percarbonate under two product groupings. The largest group is Solvay Chemicals, which has an electrochemistry and fluorinated products cluster and oxygen and organics clusters. Primary markets include adhesives and sealants, aerospace, automotive, environment, food and drink, glass, paints and coatings, medical devices, semiconductors and electronics, and soap and detergent.

Yara's theme is Man against Nature as it strives to develop environmentally friendly applications for its fertilizers. Yara America is the North American subsidiary of Norwegian fertilizer company Yara International. The company produces both nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers for the agricultural and horticultural industry from Yara's network of about 30 terminals in the US and Canada. Yara North America unit was formerly called Hydro Agri North America before its parent company was spun off from industrial giant Norsk Hydro in 2004.

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