Airgas, Inc.(NYSE: ARG), through its subsidiaries, is the largest U.S. distributor of industrial, medical, and specialty gases and related hardgoods, such as welding supplies. Airgas is also a leading U.S. distributor of safety products, the largest U.S. producer of nitrous oxide and dry ice, the largest liquid carbon dioxide producer in the Southeast, and a leading distributor of process chemicals, refrigerants and ammonia products.

Business is booming in good times and in bad at Orica. Its acquisition of the European and North American explosives operations from Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) put Orica among the world's largest suppliers of commercial explosives. The company primarily serves the mining, quarrying, and construction industries. Additionally, Orica's Chemicals division produces chlor-alkali, mining, water-treatment, and industrial chemicals through its Minova, Chemnet, and other subsidiaries. Orica is also a leader in consumer products in Australia and New Zealand; subsidiaries of that unit include Selleys (home and car care products), Dulux (decorative paints), and Cabot's (woodcare products).

Like a prissy fourth-grade girl, Willert Home Products doesn't like things to be smelly. The company manufactures incense and oils (Spiritual Sky and Scented Garden), toilet deodorizers (Bowl Fresh), potpourri and other home fragrances (Concerto), insecticides (Enoz), and a kind of moth preventative that doesn't leave that moth ball-y odor afterward (Reefer-Galler). Willert's products are sold nationally in grocery and discount stores like Wegmans, Winn-Dixie, and Wal-Mart and internationally in more than 40 countries. Willert Home Products was formed by August Willert and George Irwin in 1946; the Willert family owns and runs the company.

Univar USA is the leading chemical distributor in the United States, providing more chemical products and related services than any other company in the marketplace. Our wide distribution network, with locations coast-to-coast, helps guarantee fast, reliable service to Univar's customers.

Innophos Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, produces and sells specialty phosphates primarily in North America. The company offers specialty salts and specialty acids, such as sodium aluminum phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium hexametaphosphate, monocalcium phosphate, dicalcium phosphate, tricalcium phosphate, pharma calcium phosphate, ammonium phosphate, potassium phosphate, polyacid, and sodium tripolyphosphate. Its specialty salts are used as flavor enhancers in beverages, electrolytes in sports drinks, texture modifiers in cheeses, leavening agents in baked goods, calcium and phosphorus sources for nutritional supplements, and pharmaceutical excipients and abrasives in toothpastes; and specialty acids are used in industrial applications, such as asphalt modification and petrochemical catalysis.

Solvay works to render its customers' problems solved. Solvay Chemicals International SA is part of the chemical sector of industrial giant Solvay SA, and accounts for about one-third of the parent company's business. The sector produces hydrogen peroxide, soda ash, sodium bicarbonate, and sodium percarbonate under two product groupings. The largest group is Solvay Chemicals, which has an electrochemistry and fluorinated products cluster and oxygen and organics clusters. Primary markets include adhesives and sealants, aerospace, automotive, environment, food and drink, glass, paints and coatings, medical devices, semiconductors and electronics, and soap and detergent.

The printed circuit board (PCB) is king at Kingboard Chemical Holdings, though chemicals and laminates also make up the royal family. The company, controlled and run by the Cheung family, focuses on PCBs and the materials that make them. It operates through three roughly equal segments: PCBs, glass and paper laminates, and chemicals (including hydrogen peroxide used to bleach paper and clean semiconductors). Vertically integrated, Kingboard Chemical produces the glass fiber, copper foil, and formalin used in its laminates, which it uses to make PCBs. The group operates more than 60 manufacturing facilities in China and Thailand.

Gulf Coast Chemical serves Florida chemical consumers. The company supplies industrial chemical compounding components and equipment. It distributes products from about 25 different manufacturers, including colorants, adhesives, resins, preservatives, filaments, and metal and plastic containers. The firm's suppliers include 3M, Ball Corporation, and Ferro. Gulf Coast Chemical was founded in 1957 and delivers by train and truck.

Total's strategy is to tightly integrate its subsidiaries with the parent company's operations, and Total Petrochemicals USA operates directly in coordination with Total's US plants. For the most part Texans don't cotton to foreigners, especially those from France. But Total Petrochemicals USA, the North American arm of French energy giant Total's basic chems unit, is doing just fine in Houston. The company manufactures base and petrochemicals from facilities in Texas and Louisiana and also operates a refinery in Texas. Total Petrochemicals produces olefins (ethylene and propylene), polyolefins (polypropylene and polyethylene), aromatics (benzene, toluene, and xylene), and transportation fuels.

Ethyl hears you knocking and it hopes you let its products in. A subsidiary of NewMarket, Ethyl markets its gasoline performance additives and diesel cetane improver (which increases ignition quality in diesel fuel) throughout North America. It also makes anti-knock additive tetraethyl lead (TEL), which once was a primary product line for Ethyl but has seen diminishing returns since the U.S. Clean Air Act and others like it were put in place. NewMarket was formed in 2004 as a holding company for Ethyl and sister company Afton Chemical.

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