Georgia Industrial Minerals Inc. of Sandersville, Ga., announced that D.N. Lukens Inc., Westboro, Mass., Dar-Tech Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, The Argus Co., Louisville, Ky., Matteson-Ridolfi Inc., Riverview, Mich., and Mineral and Pigment Solutions Inc., of Houston, Atlanta and South Plainfield, N.J., have joined GIM as distributors for its family of muscovite mica products.

Nuplex Resins, Louisville, Ky., announced a price increase for all coating resins sold in North America, went into effect October 3, 2005. The increase is approximately 4 percent to 10 percent and will affect all solvent and water-borne products, including alkyds, acrylics, polyesters and amino resins. The increase is the result of continued pressure for all major raw materials, especially aromatic solvents, phthalic anhydride and styrene, as well as energy and freight.

Vitracoat, an ISO-9001 certified international powder coatings manufacturer, has acquired the latest technology equipment that will allow its production capacity to be increased by 20 percent. With this addition, Vitracoat's total production capacity exceeds 36 million pounds per year. The company expects that the new machinery will be operational in Q4 this year. Vitracoat has nine production lines and a laboratory in its 315,000 ft2 building.

Effective September 16, Atlanta-based Cytec Surface Specialties Inc. , a subsidiary of Cytec Industries Inc., will implement a $0.10/lb surcharge on all Crylcoat powder resin products marketed in the Americas region. The surcharge is needed to offset rapidly increasing raw material and energy costs that have been escalating since July.

Effective September 1, or as allowed by contract, BASF increased its list and off-list selling prices in the United States, Canada and Mexico for all grades of NEOL Neopentylglycol by $0.05 per pound. The company says this action is necessary to address continued increases in raw material, energy and logistics costs.

Effective October 1, Dow increased its prices for Voranate toluene diisocyanate (TDI) by $0.10/pound and Voranol, Voralux and Specflex polyether and copolymer polyols by $0.06/pound. These price adjustments apply to all market segments and end-use applications in the United States and Canada.