Bernard Roche, President & CEO of Arkema Inc., the U.S. unit of the Arkema Group, issued the following statement after a White House meeting on September 16 at which Arkema highlighted its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat global warming.

Eastman Chemical Co. has completed a previously announced capacity expansion of its Eastman 168™ non-phthalate plasticizers at the company’s manufacturing facility in Texas City, TX.

The AVA Group (AVA-CO2 and AVA Biochem) has hired Dr. Volker Wagner-Solbach as the Sales Manager at AVA Biochem and the Business Development Manager, Bio-Based Chemistry at AVA-CO2.

R.E. Carroll Inc. has added Charleen Heinke to the company’s sales team.

Emerald Kalama Chemical, a business group of Emerald Performance Materials, has appointed David Keung to the newly created position of Asia Sales Manager.

Taminco Corp., a leading producer of alkylamines and alkylamine derivatives, announced a definitive agreement to be acquired by Eastman Chemical Co. in a transaction valued at approximately $2.8 billion in cash.

Bayer announced on September 18 that it plans to focus entirely on the Life Science businesses - HealthCare and CropScience - and float MaterialScience on the stock market as a separate company.

Effective July 1, 2014, Cleveland-based Specialty Chemical Sales Inc. (SCS) has expanded its distribution of Momentive's Versatic acids.

SE Tylose has appointed GMZ and EW Kaufmann as regional distributor partners for the Tylose^® product line of cellulose ethers effective September 1, 2014.

Specialty chemicals company Clariant has once again been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).