When hostilities started heating up again in and around the Strait of Hormuz last week, my first reaction was to check Dow’s website. Not to see if Dow had released a statement about the key supply route—big chemical companies rarely make such pronouncements—but to learn when it would be announcing its second-quarter earnings.
Company earnings announcements are usually dry recitations of financial figures and the reasons for them. But soon after releasing those figures, firms hold a conference call with the Wall Street analysts who cover them. And during those calls, company executives open up just a little bit.
For example, Dow disclosed major layoffs and cost cutting in January, when it announced its full-year results for 2025. The press release was cursory, saying the savings would accrue “in part by utilizing AI and automation” to improve productivity. But during the call, executives presented slides that offered more, and during questioning by analysts, then-CEO Jim Fitterling opened up even further.
C&EN senior correspondent Alex Tullo was on that call to capture Fitterling’s remarks. And he will be on Dow’s July 23 call to hear what new CEO Karen S. Carter has to say about second-quarter earnings, the flare-up in the Middle East, and more.
Questions? Comments? Tips? Send them to me, business editor Michael McCoy, at m_mccoy@acs.org.
Top stories from C&EN
A technician inspects a specialized glass panel used in electronics manufacturing in Guiyang, China, in 2023. China has been pushing for self-reliance in science and technology. Credit:
Associated Press
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Business in brief
AkzoNobel rebuffs offer for its decorative paints business
AkzoNobel, which agreed to merge with Axalta Coating Systems last November, has rejected another acquisition offer. This time, Nippon Paint Holdings offered to buy AkzoNobel’s decorative paint business in a deal worth $8.6 billion. In a press release, AkzoNobel says it received multiple proposals from Nippon Paint but that the latest offer from the Japanese firm “significantly undervalues” the unit. Nippon Paint has shown persistent interest in the AkzoNobel business. In May, AkzoNobel rejected a joint takeover offer from Nippon Paint and Sherwin-Williams worth $20 billion. Under that deal, Nippon Paint would have gotten the decorative paint and industrial coatings business; Sherwin-Williams would have taken over automotive, marine, and powder coatings units. Separately, a Russian presidential decree has put AkzoNobel’s assets in that country under external administration. The assets, which generate less than 2% of AkzoNobel’s revenue, have been running independently since the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia in 2022, the company says in a statement.
—Alex Tullo
Germany’s Alzchem plans US nitroguanidine facility
The German specialty chemical producer Alzchem says it will spend about $150 million to build a nitroguanidine facility in Bushy Park, South Carolina. Alzchem says it has a contract to supply the US government with nitroguanidine, which is known for being both highly insensitive and extremely explosive and is used to make flashless gun propellants, rocket propellants, and airbag gas generators. The US, plus state and local authorities, will fund most of the cost of building the facility. Alzchem says in a press release that it recently expanded nitroguanidine capacity in Germany and that raw materials for the US facility will be manufactured in Germany, “thereby securing value creation and employment in Germany.”
—Michael McCoy
AGC wants to close controversial UK fluorochemical plant
AGC Chemicals Europe, a subsidiary of the Japanese chemical maker AGC, says it is consulting with employees and their representatives about a proposal to close its fluorochemical plant in Thornton Cleveleys, England. The facility has more than 200 employees. “This proposal has been made because the site has experienced significant financial and operational challenges, generating a loss for the past four years,” a press release says. The plant, once operated by the British chemical maker ICI, has been under scrutiny for discharges of fluorochemicals into a river and elsewhere in the local environment.
—Michael McCoy
Oxea, Air Liquide move on Texas oxo chemical expansion
Oxea’s complex in Bay City, Texas. The firm has given the final go-ahead for a project that will result in a “major capacity expansion” of its oxo alcohol plant. Credit:
Oxea
The oxo chemical producer Oxea has given the final go-ahead for an expansion of its Bay City, Texas, complex. The project will expand the company’s propionaldehyde capacity, allow the facility to produce propanol and butanol at full capacity, and increase feedstock availability for carboxylic acid production. As part of the project, the industrial gas producer Air Liquide plans to build a $200 million partial oxidation unit that will supply synthesis gas—a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen—to the Oxea plant. The unit will be equipped with a carbon dioxide recycling loop that will save some 64,000 metric tons per year of emissions. The project follows a tumultuous time for Oxea. In 2024 the firm was forced to restructure its debt. The next year, its owner, the Oman Investment Authority, sold it to Blantyre Capital and Strategic Value Partners for an undisclosed sum. The deal reduced Oxea’s debt by about $450 million, according to S&P Global.
—Alex Tullo
Ineos signs to build plastics recycling facility in Norway
Ineos Olefins & Polymers Europe and the Norwegian recycler Recuro have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a plastics recycling facility in Bamble, Norway. They say it will use pyrolysis technology from the Norwegian firm Vixla to process up to 33,000 metric tons per year of end-of-life plastic waste. The deal comes amid a sharp decline in recycled plastics output in Europe as high prices for energy and feedstocks in the region send buyers of recycled plastics to Asian suppliers. Ineos says it will use oil and gas produced by the new plant as feedstock for its ethylene cracker in nearby Rafnes, Norway. The resulting ethylene will allow the Bamble facility to make recycled polyethylene for food and medical packaging.
—Vanessa Zainzinger, special to C&EN
Biosphere buys NovoNutrients, gets $9 million from US military
Biosphere is developing a portable system capable of making rations for soldiers using only air, water, and electricity. Credit:
Biosphere
The biotech nutrition start-up Biosphere has acquired the assets of NovoNutrients, a gas fermentation reactor firm that went out of business in 2025. Biosphere is commercializing a bioreactor sterilization system that uses ultraviolet light instead of steam. The purchase gives Biosphere a reactor that NovoNutrients was using to make edible proteins and carotenoids with carbon dioxide as a carbon source. John Cumbers, CEO of the biotech conference SynBioBeta, calls the purchase “one of the smartest moves I’ve seen in bioindustrial manufacturing all year” in a social media post. “With NovoNutrients’ loop reactor design and years of gas fermentation data in hand, Biosphere has what it needs to tackle gas feedstocks at scale.” In a related development, Biosphere has won a $9 million contract from the US Department of Defense to develop a portable system capable of making rations for soldiers using only air, water, and electricity. The US military says the funding is part of more than $300 million it plans to invest in industrial biotechnology in 2026.
—Craig Bettenhausen
Givaudan invests in encapsulation start-up Microcaps
The personal care ingredient maker Givaudan has bought into the microencapsulation start-up Microcaps in a deal that includes an undisclosed equity investment and a strategic collaboration around fragrances. Microcaps uses alginate to make caviar-sized spheres of oil-phase ingredients that can be mixed with an aqueous base for products such as perfumes and cosmetics. The alginate spheres break and disperse when the product is dispensed through a spray or pump cap to yield a homogenous mist or cream, respectively. Givaudan says the partnership will help it meet growing demand for alcohol-free fragrances.
—Craig Bettenhausen
Avantium to spin off carbon dioxide chemicals as Carbeau
The Dutch chemical technology firm Avantium is spinning off It Volta Technology operation into a new firm, Carbeau, that will develop an electrochemical process for converting carbon dioxide and hydrogen into useful chemicals. The new company has secured about $40 million in funding from investors including Avantium, InvestNL, and Al Baleed Petrochemical. Avantium is retaining a 32.7% stake in Carbeau. Two of Carbeau’s target chemicals are glycolic acid and polylacticcoglycolic acid polymer. It is planning a pilot plant in Delfzijl, the Netherlands.
—Alex Tullo
Novonesis to scale milk protein fermentation technology from TurtleTree
TurtleTree says it received a “No Questions” letter from the US Food and Drug Administration in May 2025 that validates the safety of its fermented lactoferrin. Credit:
TurtleTree
The enzyme giant Novonesis plans to scale up a fermentation process for the milk protein lactoferrin developed by the start-up TurtleTree. Singapore-based TurtleTree claims that lactoferrin can boost the immune system, regulate iron absorption, improve gut health, and reduce inflammation. Because milk contains only trace amounts of lactoferrin, fermentation is a more sustainable form of production than extraction, TurtleTree says. Novonesis plans to sell the protein as an ingredient for infant formula and dietary supplements. Novonesis is also investing in TurtleTree, as is the venture capital arm of Mitsui Chemicals.
—Matt Blois
Adani partners with Dioxycle to make low-carbon chemicals
The Indian energy and infrastructure conglomerate Adani is partnering with Dioxycle—one of C&EN’s 10 Start-Ups to Watch in 2024—to manufacture low-carbon chemicals in India. The companies will start by building a pilot facility at an Adani site that will convert captured carbon dioxide into formic acid. If successful, the firms will scale up the technology and potentially expand into other chemicals. Adani is one of the world’s largest renewable electricity developers, which makes it a good fit with Dioxycle’s electrolyzer technology, the firms say. In March, Dioxycle teamed up with L’Oreal to use carbon emissions to make ethylene as a raw material for packaging materials.
—Matt Blois
Evonik to invest $100 million at US pharmaceutical chemical site
Evonik Industries is expanding its pharmaceutical chemical footprint in the US amid what it calls “geopolitical uncertainties.” The German chemical company plans to invest $100 million over the next 5 years in its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production site in Lafayette, Indiana. Evonik says the site, which it acquired from Eli Lilly and Company in 2010, is among the world’s largest API facilities. The project will include the installation of large reactors and automated equipment, Evonik says in a press release. “This upgrade positions Evonik to meet the rapidly growing demand for U.S.-based drug substance contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services,” the release adds. Evonik is downsizing drug ingredient production on its home turf. In June, the company announced that it had sold selected assets in Hanau, Germany, related to API production to the contract manufacturer ProChem Group.
—Aayushi Pratap
Prime Medicine claims victory over Beam in gene-editing patent fight
Prime Medicine has won a patent dispute with Beam Therapeutics stemming from a gene-editing drug candidate for α-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). Both Prime and Beam are developing drug candidates based on technology from David Liu at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Beam argued in arbitration that Prime had violated a 2019 collaboration and licensing agreement between the two companies by developing a gene-editing drug candidate for AATD, a disease area that Beam was also working in. Prime disagreed, saying that the nature of its treatment was different because it went beyond a single-DNA-base change required to treat AATD. A tribunal decided last week that Prime’s AATD drug candidate is within Prime’s field and did not constitute a breach of the 2019 agreement.
—Rowan Walrath
ARPA-H launches $160 million rare disease program
The US Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) has announced a program designed to award up to $160 million over 5 years to researchers working on drugs for rare diseases. Specifically, the program is directed toward personalized genetic medicines for rare pediatric diseases, like one that researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia developed for the infant KJ Muldoon. Those researchers are leading one team as part of the ARPA-H program. Other award recipients include scientists at the University of California, Berkeley; St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Gemma Biotherapeutics, founded by the gene therapy pioneer Jim Wilson; Massachusetts General Hospital; and Stanford University. The ARPA-H program appears to build on efforts elsewhere in the US Department of Health and Human Services, including at the Food and Drug Administration, to lower the barriers to development—and regulatory approval—of individualized medicines.
—Rowan Walrath
AstraZeneca signs $200 million deal for Sino Biopharma respiratory drug
AstraZeneca has licensed a respiratory drug candidate from China’s Sino Biopharmaceutical for $200 million up front and possible milestone payments totaling $1.9 billion. Sino says the small molecule, a phosphodiesterase 3 and 4 (PDE3/4) inhibitor called TQC3721, has bronchodilatory and anti-inflammatory properties that could be applied to a range of chronic respiratory conditions. An inhaled, nebulized form of the drug is currently in Phase 3 trials in China for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. AstraZeneca recently agreed to pay China’s CSPC Pharmaceutical $30 million as part of a deal in small interfering RNA drugs. The deals are the latest examples of Big Pharma’s interest in Chinese biopharma, though a push to add biotech deals to the US Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act could slow the pace.
—Sarah Braner