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NEWS IN BRIEF ...

Protech Chemicals Ltd. (Montreal) has entered into a licensing agreement with Asian Paints Industrial Coatings Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Asian Paints of Mumbai, India. Under the agreement, Asian Paints will be granted access to Protech's products and formulations, as well as Protech's manufacturing and marketing capabilities. Asian Paints is the largest coatings producer in India.

UCB Group's Surface Specialties UCB business has announced plans to build a melamine coatings resins production plant in Shanghai, China, in response to rapid demand growth. The plant, with an initial capacity of more than 12,000 metric tons annually, is expected to go on-stream in late 2005 and will be built at Surface Specialties UCB's existing coatings resins site. Powder coatings resins and UV-curable resins are currently produced at the site. The company says the Chinese market for coatings resins is projected to post a double-digit growth rate this year.

DuPont (Wilmington, DE) has added two new distributors for its Specialty Colorants and Additives business. Each distributor will offer customized products and services in the areas of nano-particle and ultrafine dispersions. Lipscomb Chemical of Long Beach, CA, will operate in the West and Southwest, and the G. R. O'Shea Co. of Itasca, IL, will operate in the Midwest.

BASF Argentina S.A. (Buenos Aires) has received Ford Motor Co.'s Silver World Excellence Award for its superior performance in 2003. The World Excellence Awards provide annual recognition based on quality, cost and delivery performance. Forty-two suppliers from 16 countries won awards in various categories.

Rohm & Haas Co. (Philadelphia) has been named one of the "100 Best Corporate Citizens of 2004" by Business Ethics magazine, based on the company's performance in terms of service to key stakeholder groups. Also named to the list is Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (Lehigh Valley, PA). The list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens was led by Fannie Mae, Procter & Gamble, and Intel, all of which had made the list for five consecutive years.

DSM Coating Resins (Augusta, GA) has announced an agreement to acquire the Huttenes-Albertus Lackrohsoffe coatings-resins business of Huttenes-Albertus Chemische Werke GmbH of Dusseldorf, Germany. The acquired business has annual sales of approximately 15 million euros and offers a range of resin products. The business in recent years has realigned its product portfolio to "more novel and eco-friendly waterborne systems," DSM says.