ICO, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures specialty resins and concentrates, and provides specialized polymer processing services. The company offers specialty resins in powder form that are used to manufacture household items, such as toys, household furniture, and trash receptacles; automobile parts; agricultural products, such as fertilizer and water tanks; paints; and metal and fabric coatings. Its concentrate products are primarily used as additives that are blended with resins and then used to produce plastic films. The company also provides toll processing services, including ambient grinding, jet milling, compounding, and ancillary services for resins produced in pellet form and other material. It provides its products and services through 20 operating facilities located in 9 countries primarily in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company also exports its products to Africa and Asia. Its customers include chemical companies, polymer production affiliates of oil exploration and production companies, and manufacturers of plastic products. ICO, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

CEPS, formerly known as Dinkie Heel, invests in a handful of specialty businesses. Its Davies Odell business makes body armor, protective underwear, matting for equestrian and dairy use, and a range of footwear repair products. CEPS' Friedman's is a specialist textile importer. The company acquired Friedman's, an importer and distributor of Lycra materials used in dancewear and swimwear, in 2005. The company's Sunline Direct Mail unit is engaged in the the polythene wrapping of mail packs. CEPS has been operating since 1930.

Pacific Ethanol, Inc. produces and sells ethanol and its co-products in the western United States, primarily in California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, and Washington. It also provides transportation, storage, and delivery of ethanol through third-party service providers. The company’s co-products include wet distillers grains. It sells ethanol to gasoline refining and distribution companies, and wet distillers grains to dairy operators and animal feed distributors. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Sacramento, California.

Rockwood Holdings, Inc. engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of specialty chemicals and advanced materials for industrial and commercial purposes worldwide. The company operates through five segments: Specialty Chemicals, Performance Additives, Titanium Dioxide Pigments, Advanced Ceramics, and Specialty Compounds. The Specialty Chemicals segment offers lithium compounds and chemicals; metal surface treatment chemicals, including corrosion protection/prevention oils; synthetic metal sulfides; and maintenance chemicals. This segment serves automotive pre-coating metal treatment and car body pre-treatment, steel and metal working, life sciences, polymerization initiators for elastomers, steel and metal working, batteries, disc brakes, and aircraft industries. The Performance Additives segment provides iron oxide pigments, wood protection products, inorganic chemicals, synthetic and organic thickeners, and flocculants for residential and commercial construction, coatings and plastics, personal care, paper manufacturing, foundries, and water treatment.The Titanium Dioxide Pigments segment offers titanium dioxide pigments, barium compounds, and zinc compounds for synthetic fibers, plastics, paper, pharmaceutical contrast media, and paints and coatings markets. The Advanced Ceramics segment provides ceramic-on-ceramic ball head and liner components used in hip joint prostheses systems; ceramic tapes; cutting tools; wear and corrosion; and armor components. This segment serves medical, industrial, electronics, automotive, and defense markets. The Specialty Compounds segment offers specification compounds, such as polyvinyl chloride and thermoplastic elastomer for voice and data transmission cables, food and beverage, packaging, medical applications, footwear, and automotive markets. The company also provides wafer recycling and repair for semiconductors manufacturing. Rockwood Holdings was incorporated in 2000 and is based in Princeton, New Jersey.

Scapa Group thrives in sticky situations. The company makes technical adhesive tapes and films used by the automotive, aerospace, graphic arts, sports, electronics, industrial assembly, and medical markets. Scapa's commercial customers use its technical tapes for assembly and repair, protection, insulation, and identification. Specific uses range from medical bandages to shin guard protection for hockey players to electronic component assembly. The Acutek International subsidiary is a medical products manufacturer specializing in adhesive components. Scapa has rid itself of most noncore operations to focus on tapes.

Valhi, Inc is a Delaware corporation that has operations through majority-owned subsidiaries or less than majority-owned affiliates. Valhi’s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “VHI.” See the disclosure in Valhi’s latest Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Report on Form 10Q and Proxy Statement (see the SEC Filings section of this website) for a recent description of Valhi’s operations and ownership structure.Valhi Inc. is considered a controlled company under the listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange. Pursuant to the listing standards, a controlled company may choose not to have a majority of independent directors, independent compensation, nominating or corporate governance committees or charters for these committees. Valhi has chosen not to have a majority of independent directors or an independent nominating or corporate governance committee.

Rust-Oleum has been fighting the spread of iron oxide for more than 80 years. The company makes paints and similar coatings that resist moisture and corrosion. Designed for materials that are exposed to the elements, including light fixtures, patio furniture, wheelbarrows, mailboxes, and window trim, Rust-Oleum products come in multiple colors and textures. It also makes paints for indoor furniture, epoxies for garage floors and truck beds, and oil finishes for wood. Originally founded in 1921 by a Scottish-born sea captain named Robert Fergusson who discovered fish oil prevented rust, Rust-Oleum is now a subsidiary of chemicals and consumer products heavyweight RPM International.

R. T. Vanderbilt Company opened its doors for business on 42nd Street in New York City in 1916. It was started by a 31-year-old named Robert Thurlow Vanderbilt who had $1,000 of his own, a $24,000 family loan, and a contract to sell clay for a company in the South.Since the paper industry was a prime market for clay, it was here that Robert Vanderbilt saw his Company begin to grow. His success led him to form R. T. Vanderbilt Company's first subsidiary, Continental Clay Company (now Dixie Clay Company) in South Carolina. However, while soft clay was geared to the needs of the paper industry, Continental Clay and North American Clay Company (of which Robert was a director) were also mining hard clays more suitable to the rubber industry. This introduced Vanderbilt to the rubber industry.

Enormous steel factories call for monolithic refractories, and Minteq International delivers. A wholly owned subsidiary of Minerals Technologies Inc., Minteq produces refracting materials for surfaces or applications exposed to extreme high temperatures. The company primarily serves the aluminum, cement, iron, polymer, steel, and other manufacturing industries. Its Pyrogenics Group produces pyrolytic graphite used for thermal management in aerospace, electronics, and glass applications. Subsidiary Ferrotron provides refractories for steel makers, and Minteq's ASMAS unit, acquired in 2006, serves the steel industry in Eastern Europe and Turkey.

Linde's business is lighter than air and bigger than everyone else's. Operating in more than 100 countries, it is the world's largest producer of industrial and medical gases. Linde also has an engineering unit that builds process plants for companies in the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and gas manufacturing industries; the gases unit accounts for about three-quarters of its sales. A third division provides logistics and supply chain solutions to a broad range of commercial and industrial sectors, including electronics, grocery, retail and gas. The company is active worldwide but does about half of its business in Europe.

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