KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Cook Composites and Polymers has announced a plant consolidation plan that will streamline its production system while continuing to fully support its North American distribution system for Coatings Resins.

LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany - BASF has increased its production capacity for quinophthalone pigments at its Ludwigshafen site in Germany to 1,400 metric tons per annum.

MIAMI - Atlas Weathering Services Group, a division of Atlas Material Testing Technology LLC, is expanding its services by creating the world's largest and most advanced global benchmark weathering-testing facility in Miami.

ARNHEM, the Netherlands - Akzo Nobel will close the McCook plant operated by its Surfactants business in the Chicago area.

DES MOINES, Iowa - PPG Industries is purchasing the store operations of IPM Group, including the Iowa Paint and Sterling Paint brands.

PERSTORP, Sweden - Industri Kapital and the French private equity company PAI partners have signed an agreement to buy Sydsvenska Kemi, the parent company of the leading specialty chemicals group Perstorp AB.

NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. - National Paint Industries has purchased the Wilson Imperial Company of Newark, N.J., a manufacturer of specialty paint products since 1928.

WAYNE, Pa. - Deacom, Inc., will host the 1st Process Manufacturers Roundtable on May 4-5, 2006, in Wayne, Pa., for all Deacom process-manufacturing customers.

WAALWIJK, the Netherlands - On November 18, 2005, Monika Riese-Martin, business unit director of DSM NeoResins, officially opened the new regional center in Shanghai.

BASEL, Switzerland - Ciba Specialty Chemicals has formed a worldwide marketing cooperation with Bio-Gate Bioinnovative Materials GmbH, Germany.