Inabata & Co. is all over the map, literally and figuratively. The company has operations in such varied segments as information technology and electronics, housing materials, chemicals, plastics, and food, offering its products around the world. The company produces IT and electronic goods including flat panel displays, copiers and printers, while its chemical products include dyestuffs, paper chemicals, paint, ink, and adhesives. Offerings in the plastics segments include resins, performance plastics, and packaging materials. Inabata also supplies seafood, agricultural, and meat products to commercial clients worldwide.

Beauty is indeed only skin deep when it comes to laminates, quoth Nevamar. The company specializes in making thin laminates that serve to protect and/or decorate all manner of objects. Nevamar's laminates, high pressure laminates, specialty surfaces, aluminum sheets, and thermofused melamine panels are typically used in such applications as counters, wall panels, office and household furniture, interior doors, table tops, elevator cabs, and vanities. Laminates can mimic more expensive materials such as stone or wood or can be designed with special properties such as chemical resistance, fire resistance, or static dissipation. Panolam Industries acquired Nevamar in 2006.

W. R. Grace & Co. engages in the production and sale of specialty chemicals and specialty materials worldwide. Its Grace Davison segment offers fluid catalytic cracking catalysts to produce transportation fuels, such as gasoline and diesel fuels, and other petroleum-based products; FCC additives; hydroprocessing catalysts used in process reactors; and silica-based and silica-alumina-based engineered materials used in various industrial and consumer applications, and coatings and print media applications, as well as sealants and coatings used in rigid food and beverage packaging. It also offers polyolefin catalysts and catalyst supports for use in the manufacture of polyethylene and polypropylene resins, and other chemical catalysts used in industrial, environmental, and consumer applications, as well as silica-based materials, chromatography columns, instruments, consumables, and accessories for life sciences applications.This segment serves oil refiners, plastics and chemical manufacturers, users of product packaging, consumer product manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies. The company’s Grace Construction Products segment produces and sells specialty construction chemicals and materials, including concrete admixtures and fibers; additives used in cement processing; building materials used in commercial and residential construction and renovation to protect buildings from water, vapor, and air penetration; and fireproofing materials used to retard the spread of fire in buildings. The company was founded in 1854 and is based in Columbia, Maryland. On April 2, 2001, W. R. Grace & Co. filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Ciba Specialty Chemicals aims to make things stronger, brighter, less clingy, and cleaner. (Note to Parents: it can't achieve this with kids.) Ciba produces specialty chemicals through three business segments: coating effects (pigments, anti-static additives, and whitening agents); plastic additives (additives for lubricants and plastics); and water and paper treatment (for the paper production, water and wastewater treatment, detergent, and hygiene industries). Ciba sells in more than 120 countries, mostly in Europe, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific region; Europe accounts for almost half of sales. BASF, the world's largest chemicals maker, bought Ciba for about $4 billion in 2009.

Humatech turns organic matter into food for plants and animals. Humatech claims that its line of organic, humate-based fertilizers, feed additives, and plant nutrients are safer for the environment and channel nutrients to the plants more efficiently. The company markets its products to commercial growers, independent garden consumers, and animal feeders throughout the US; it also has a 45% stake in its UK distributor, Humatech, Ltd.

In 2005 UWGP completed the construction of and began operating an ethanol facility that manufactures 40 million gallons of ethanol a year. It has since expanded the plant to a capacity of more than 50 million gallons. It's not going against the grain to turn farm crops into motor fuels. Certainly not for United Wisconsin Grain Producers (UWGP), which like many other agribusinesses in the Midwest and Great Plains, is pushing grain-based ethanol as a viable and renewable fuel additive. Ethanol is an alcohol fuel produced by fermenting converted starch from corn with yeast. Most ethanol is blended with unleaded gasoline and other fuel products.

Occidental Chemical (OxyChem) manufactures basic chemicals, vinyls, and performance chemicals. The company is the top US maker of chlorine and caustic soda (used in bleach, plastics, and pulp and paper) and the top producer of potassium hydroxide, or caustic potash (used in fertilizers). Through subsidiary OxyVinyls it's the leading North American maker of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), which is used to make PVC resins. The company operates some 22 plants throughout the US as well as another three in Brazil, Canada, and Chile. (OxyChem owns 50% of the Brazilian plant.)

Sinnett-Elpaco Coatings makes industrial paints and powder coatings for products in the ammunition, appliance, automotive, construction, electrical, industrial machinery, consumer goods, marine, and office furniture industries. Its products include high-temperature coatings, clear polyester powders, enamels, solvents, epoxies, urethanes, and wash primers. The company, also known as TriTech Coatings, is owned by its executives.

Biopetrol Industries wants to say auf weidersehen to fossil fuels. The company manufactures biodiesel from rapeseed oil, soybeans, and methanol from three plants in Europe. Biopetrol distributes its products to oil companies, fleet operators, public transportation agencies, and construction and agricultural companies across Europe. It also manufactures bioglycerine. (Crude glycerol is a natural byproduct of making biodiesel; Biopetrol refines it for use in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.) Swiss commodities giant Glencore International acquired a majority stake in Biopetrol, along with the right to boost its share to a two-thirds majority, at the start of 2010.

Technic's technique allows it to specialize in electroplating chemicals and technology. The company makes plating chemicals for electronic manufacturing, specializing in precious metals plating. It also produces wafer processing chemicals and powders and flakes for electronic applications. Additionally Technic manufactures plating equipment like wafer plating benches for semiconductor makers, automatic hoists, and reel-to-reel plating machines. It operates two manufacturing plants in the US and also has manufacturing operations in Asia and Europe.

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