Rohm and Haas Company intends to consolidate its North American Powder Coatings operations into two sites, closing its Wytheville, Va., plant by the first quarter of 2006.

The National Paint & Coatings Association invites all members to offer submissions for its 2005 Safety Awards Program.

At it spring meeting in Arizona, NPCA's board of directors and executive committee took action on several initiatives, including the association's Architectural and Industrial Maintenance (AIM) Coatings - Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) policy, a federal legislative strategy to address childhood lead poisoning and further study of a possible national system for the management of post-consumer paint.

The Dow Chemical Company has established new transactional service standards for its chemicals customers in the United States and Canada.

BASF's Automotive Refinish business has issued its North American training schedule for the third quarter of 2005.

lobal specialty chemicals manufacturer Sartomer Company has appointed Lipscomb Chemical, Long Beach, Calif., as a stocking distributor.

In addition, BYK-Chemie USA Inc., Wallingford, Conn., recently received the 2005 Frost & Sullivan Product Line Strategy Leadership Award for offering the most comprehensive product portfolio to the U.S. paint additives market.

A comprehensive report detailing security efforts being undertaken by its chemical-distributor members has been released by the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD).

"The driver and not the technology should be the focal point of a car," observes the head of Rinspeed, Frank M. Rinderknecht, summing up the fundamental idea behind his latest concept car: the "Senso."

Major Japanese paint manufacturer, Kansai, has initiated the process to hike its equity stake in the second-largest Indian paint company, Goodlass Nerolac, by 15 percent.