Giovanni Crespi started its activity in 1932. From those modest early days up to today's establishments a long and enthusiatic way was covered always looking for perfection. Open minded managers, skilled labours have granted a continuous growth also thanks to massive investments in very advanced machinery and research equipments. Giovanni Crespi has production units in Italy, Poland, China, and Brazil.

Sherwin Alumina, one of the largest alumina refineries in North America, extracts aluminum oxide, or alumina, from bauxite ore. It has an annual production capacity of nearly 1.5 million tons of smelter-grade and 300,000 tons of chemical-grade alumina. After the company refines the alumina it is then used primarily in the making of aluminum, though also as an abrasive and a refractory material. Sherwin Alumina's location on the Texas Gulf Coast allows it access to nearby aluminum smelting facilities and its own deepwater port. It is owned by Swiss metals giant Glencore.

It's not in Minnesota and it doesn't do any mining either, but at least 3M United Kingdom does accomplish some manufacturing. 3M UK is the British and Irish arm of diversified chemical and consumer products firm 3M Company. Among 3M's product lines are Scotch-brand tape and Post-it Notes. 3M Health Care Ltd., whose business makes up a large component of 3M UK, makes medical equipment and supplies like respirators and drug delivery systems. The company also manufactures abrasives and adhesives. 3M UK is among its parent company's largest international iterations with about 15 locations, including 11 manufacturing facilities.

INVISTA has a fibrous outlook on life. A global leader in textile and polymer manufacturing, INVISTA is composed of four business units -- Apparel, Intermediates, Performance Surfaces and Materials, and Polymers and Resins -- and its portfolio includes brand names CoolMax, Stainmaster, Lycra, and Thermolite. Its products are used in clothing, plastic packaging, automobile airbags, and pharmaceutical ingredients. DuPont sold INVISTA to Koch Industries in 2004. Koch then merged the company with its own fibers unit, KoSa, leaving only INVISTA remaining. INVISTA operates worldwide.

Bet Coronado never thought to look in Arkansas. LSB Industries did, though, and found its own El Dorado there. El Dorado Chemical is part of the chemical manufacturing division of LSB. It makes agricultural products and industrial chemicals, including nitrogen-based fertilizers, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and industrial-grade ammonium nitrate for the mining industry. The company operates a manufacturing facility in El Dorado, Arkansas and has marketing and distribution operations in the south-central US. It ships products to wholesale customers by truck or railcar; it also serves retail customers.

Yule Catto’s Safety, Health and Environmental (SHE) performance improved sharply for the second year in a row, making 2008 easily the Company’s best year ever for SHE performance. The number of Over-3-Day Lost Time Accidents (O3D) accidents in Group companies owned on 1 January 2008 halved, to give an accident rate better than the average for the UK chemical industry (as measured by the UK Chemical Industries Association). This was the target we set for 2008. Equally encouraging, there was a significant drop in the all Lost Time Accident (LTA) rate which reduced to 60% of the latest figure reported by Cefic (the European Chemical Industry’s representative body).Yule Catto & Co plc produces specialty chemicals through three units: polymer chemicals (water-based polymers, synthetic latex), performance chemicals (aerosol filling, colorants, industrial cleaners), and pharma and fine chemicals (pharmaceutical ingredients, organic and inorganic chemicals, flavor and fragrance products for food and detergents). Yule Catto's polymer chemicals division is by far its largest, accounting for more than two-thirds of sales. Malaysian plantation company Kuala Lumpur Kepong owns nearly 22% of Yule Catto.

Arkema hoards a dozen or so commodity and specialty chemicals units that operate worldwide. Those businesses reside within Arkema's industrial chemicals (acrylics, fluorochemicals, thiochemicals, and hydrogen peroxide), performance chemicals (specialty chemicals, technical polymers, and organic peroxides), and vinyl products (chlorochemicals and PVC resins and products) segments. Arkema operates 80 manufacturing facilities in Europe, North America, and Asia, and six research centers in France, Japan, and the US. Multinational oil and gas leviathan TOTAL spun off the company in 2006.

The company (SII for short) manufactures a number of specialty and basic chemicals, beginning with aluminum-based products (for the paper and water treatment industries) to zirconium (for makers of titanium dioxide -- the most widely used white pigment). Its core markets include manufacturers of cement, molecular sieves, pharmaceuticals, refinery and automotive catalysts, and zeolites. SII has about 10 manufacturing plants spread throughout the southeast US and Texas. President and CEO Milton Sundbeck owns Southern Ionics.

Hawkins, Inc. manufactures, blends, and distributes bulk and specialty chemicals. It operates through two segments, Industrial and Water Treatment. The Industrial segment provides industrial chemicals, products, and services to agriculture, energy, electronics, food, chemical processing, pulp and paper, pharmaceutical, medical device, and plating industries. This segment also offers acids, alkalis, and industrial and food-grade salts; and distributes various chemicals in bulk, including liquid caustic soda, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, potassium hydroxide, and aqua ammonia. In addition, this segment manufactures sodium hypochlorite and agricultural products, as well as food-grade products, including Cheese-Phos liquid phosphate, lactates, and other blended products; repackages water treatment chemicals; and performs custom blending of chemicals for customers according to customer formulas. The Water Treatment Segment provides equipment, chemicals, and solutions for potable water, municipal and industrial wastewater, industrial process water, and non-residential swimming pool water. Hawkins, Inc. was founded in 1938 and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Wacker family controls more than half of the publicly traded company. Wacker-Chemie puts the silicon in the silicon chip industry -- literally. The German chemicals company supplies silicon, silicone, and silanes to the personal computer, telecom, and electronics industries. Divided into five units -- Silicones, Siltronic, Polymers, Polysilicon, and Fine Chemicals -- Wacker manufactures surface coating resins, industrial salt, acetyls, and insulation materials. Subsidiary Siltronic AG manufactures silicon wafers for the semiconductor industry.

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