Enormous steel factories call for monolithic refractories, and Minteq International delivers. A wholly owned subsidiary of Minerals Technologies Inc., Minteq produces refracting materials for surfaces or applications exposed to extreme high temperatures. The company primarily serves the aluminum, cement, iron, polymer, steel, and other manufacturing industries. Its Pyrogenics Group produces pyrolytic graphite used for thermal management in aerospace, electronics, and glass applications. Subsidiary Ferrotron provides refractories for steel makers, and Minteq's ASMAS unit, acquired in 2006, serves the steel industry in Eastern Europe and Turkey.

Little Sioux Corn Processors operates an ethanol plant in northwest Iowa. (It actually owns a 60% interest in the limited partnership that owns the ethanol facility.) The company converts bushels of corn into ethanol, distiller grains (used as feed for the dairy and beef industries), and corn oil. Ethanol is used as an additive to gasoline as well as a fuel enhancer for high-octane motors, and it burns more cleanly than normal gasoline thereby reducing carbon monoxide emissions. Little Sioux's production capacity is about 90 million gallons of ethanol annually, more than double its orginal capacity after successive expansions.

French imports are more than just Camembert and the "nouvelle vague"; Rhodia's North American operations bring the specialty chemicals business of its French parent Rhodia over to the US. The company manufactures an array of chemicals, from surfactants and raw materials for cosmetics to pharmaceutical ingredients and rare earth materials. Rhodia's North American operations also include the manufacture of agricultural chemicals, silicas, silicones, and engineering plastics. Rhodia has operations throughout the US, as well as in Canada. It provides more than 15% of its parent's total sales.

Founded in 1978, Wego is run by partners Bert Eshaghpour and Edward Khalily. Chemical distributor Wego Chemical & Mineral operates throughout the Americas as well as Asia and Europe. Its products include acids, adhesives and sealants, colorants, dyes, pigments, esters, flavors and fragrances, food additives, and intermediates. The company delivers those products to companies operating in the agriculture, cosmetics, detergent, food, mining, pharmaceutical, paper, textile, and water treatment industries. Wego Chemical sources most of its products from Asia, where it owns stakes in manufacturing facilities, taking advantage of less expensive manufacturing costs there.

Fuchs Lubricants Co. is the U.S. operating unit of the Fuchs Worldwide Group, the largest independent manufacturer of specialty lubricants in the world.Fuchs provides high quality lubricants and services to a wide range of American industry - from underground mines to pharmaceutical manufacturers to makers of complex metal components such as automotive, appliance and aerospace manufacturers. Fuchs is constantly developing new products to meet the ever-changing demands of modern industry.

Enerchem International provides oilfield services and energy marketing. The company makes hydrocarbon-based well-servicing fluids for oil and gas drilling and processing equipment. It supplies conventional and heavy oil production plants, natural gas processing plants, pipelines, and compressor stations. Enerchem's Fracsol brand is one of the most widely used fracturing fluids. Its energy marketing activities include the sale of crude oil by-products from its plants. In 2005 the company sold its specialty chemicals operations to M-I Swaco's Canadian drilling fluids unit in order to concentrate on its hydrocarbon fluids business. The next year it bought energy industry transportation company Millard Trucking.

Mays Chemical distributes chemicals and raw materials to customers in the automotive, cosmetics, electronics, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, paint, and pulp and paper industries. Its product lines include acids, alcohols, chlor-alkali products, chlorinated solvents, flavors and fragrances, food additives, glycol ethers, and inorganic chemicals. The company also offers chemical management services, cleaning and sanitation systems, formulated chemical products, and outsourcing services. Mays has customers in more than a dozen countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The firm is owned by president William Mays.

Where would we be without the squeegee? Ettore Products doesn't want to know. The company's founder, Ettore Steccone, designed and patented the modern squeegee in 1936. Ettore also makes a variety of other cleaning items such as window sponges, extendable automobile scrub brushes, dusters, floor squeegees, and scrapers, all of which can be found at hardware and do-it-yourself stores such as Ace, Home Depot, Lowe's, Sears, and Sutherland Lumber. The company manufactures its products at its 35,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Oakland, California, and has international locations in China and the Netherlands.

Start with a strong dose of analytical expertise in organic compounds, add more than a pinch of synthesis, and mix in high quality manufacturing operations. These are the key ingredients that ABITEC says make up its business. Enzyme producer ABITEC's services range from vegetable oil refining to customer-specific ingredients synthesis. In addition to emulsifiers for the food and flavor industries, the company makes oleochemical-based ethoxylates for industrial uses, emollients and emulsifiers for the personal care segment, and excipients for pharmaceutical companies. It is a part of the ingredients unit of Associated British Foods.

Elkem is one of Norway's largest industrial companies and aims to become a global supplier to the silicon products and solar energy industries. Its products include ferroalloys, silicon metal, carbon, and microsilica. In addition, Elkem produces hydroelectric power for Norway's power market and is involved in energy trading in the Nordic market. It is also developing its own technology for highly purified silicon, to be used in solar cells. Elkem is a subsidiary of Norwegian industrial conglomerate Orkla.

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