News in brief

Speciality chemicals firm Inspec is to sell its remaining commodity businesses, based in Antwerp, to its management. The buy-out team, headed by James Ratcliffe, has set up a new company called Ineos to run the business and handle the transaction. The Antwerp site houses capacity for ethylene oxide (200000tpa), ethylene glycol (200000tpa) and ethylidene norbornene (12000tpa).

China creates chemical giants

The Chinese government is to restructure its nationalised oil gas, refinery and petrochemical industries, creating two huge new companies. Beifang Petrochemical will cover the areas north and west of the Great Wall, concentrating on oil and gas; Nanfang Petrochemical will handle the areas to the south and east, concentrating on petrochemicals. Nanfang will also take charge of negotiation of ethylene projects with Western companies.

Foster Wheeler goes Swiss

Contractor Foster Wheeler Energy has opened a new subsidiary in Basel to serve Swiss and German drugs and fine chemicals producers.

Unlawful death in Gower case

The deaths of two council workmen in South Wales due to chemical fumes has been ruled as 'unlawful' by an inquest jury in Neath. The workers, Ryan Preece and Robert Simpson, were overcome by fumes from CFC-11 in a pumping station sewage chamber in October 1996. The substance is thought to have come from nearby Gower Chemicals, which admits responsibility for a three-tonne spillage of CFC-11 some two months earlier. The firm, and the local authority, are likely to face a criminal investigation and claims for compensation.

Fruitful merger

US specialities firm Hercules, which recently failed in its attempt to buy Allied Colloids, has bought Citrus Colloids, a UK pectin produce with operations in Hereford and Limera, Brazil. Hercules which already makes pectin from lemons intends to incorporate its new acquisition into its food gums business.