Kemira Acquires Neste Paper Chemicals
The first acquisition involves the paper chemicals business of Neste Chemicals Oy. It includes the paper chemicals business of Austria's Krems Chemie AG and Neste's share of CN-Paper Chemicals.
Kemira describes Krems as the "undisputed market leader" in traditional rosin sizes in German speaking Europe and Eastern Europe. Rosin sizes are made from tall oil rosin. In the past, Krems and Kemira cooperated in synthetic alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) size.
In addition to this, Kemira Chemicals is acquiring the paper size business of Finnland's Oy Chemec Ab for EU 34 million. It estimates the business to have net sales of EU 35 million. Chemec cooperates with Neste on alkenyl succinic anhydride (ASA), the second major synthetic size. The largest ASA supplier in Finland, Chemec is currently opening Europe's largest ASA production unit in Krems, Austria.
The acquisition brings Kemira new facilities in Austria, Poland, Turkey, and Russia. In Central Europe Krems co-operates on the market with Chemische Fabrik Bruhl through the company PCS.
These acquisitions position Kemira firmly in all three types of sizes. The deals are part of the company's strategy to become one of the world's leading pulp and paper chemical producers. It is already a EU 350 million major producer of bleaching chemicals, specialty chemicals for the wet end of paper machines, and water treatment chemicals.
Paper sizes are used to improve printability of paper and to improve water resistance especially in printing and writing paper grades as well as liquid packaging boards. Kemeira expects size demand to grow rapidly as the demand for papers with better printability and better production efficiency increases.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval from competition authorities in Austria, Germany and Poland.
Edited by Alan S. Brown