Rohm and Haas, CSI Link Up

Two players in the wood treatment industry are joining forces. Starting in January 2007, Rohm and Haas Company will operate a joint venture with Chemical Specialties, Inc. (CSI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Rockwood Holdings, Inc. The new venture will join Rohm and Haas’s wood biocides division with the wood protection chemicals division of CSI. Like others in the chemical treatment industry, including Arch Chemicals (see

EBN

Vol. 15, No. 8), CSI plans to develop organic chemical wood treatments and has pledged to introduce new preservatives in 2007. Rohm and Haas will pay $75 million for its share of the venture, which will be equally owned by both partners and located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Rohm and Haas is online at www.rohmhaas.com; CSI is online at www.treatedwood.com.