Despite the April 7 ceasefire between Iran and the US, the war in the Persian Gulf is far from over. According to the maritime consulting firm Windward—an excellent source for the situation in the region—the Strait of Hormuz saw 17 crossings on April 12, a sign that Iran is loosening its blockade. But transits are still about a tenth of the usual flow.
On April 9, the chemical shipping company Stolt-Nielsen withdrew its earnings guidance for the year, “given the unpredictable impact of the conflict on global economic conditions and trading patterns,” it says in a statement. The company notes spillover effects, such as high fuel prices in the region east of the Suez Canal. “Even in a peace scenario, it is unclear how long it will take to repair damaged facilities, restart production, and clear the shipping backlog, adding further to the uncertainty,” Stolt-Nielsen says.
With the Donald J. Trump administration threatening to decrease, not increase, maritime traffic through the strait with a blockage of vessels visiting Iranian ports, peace is not yet a scenario. Any contingency plans that chemical firms may have had for a longer-duration conflict might be worth another look.
C&EN will continue to monitor the situation. Meanwhile, send any questions, comments, or tips to me, senior correspondent Alex Tullo, at [email protected].
Top stories from C&EN
An engineer works on an iron-air battery at a Form Energy facility. Credit:
Form Energy
Business in brief
Petrochemical maker Borouge International debuts
Nova Chemicals’ complex in Joffre, Alberta, is now a part of Borouge International. Credit:
Borouge International
The Austrian refiner OMV and XRG, the international investment arm of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), have completed combining their petrochemical assets to form Borouge International. The deal brings together the European petrochemical producer Borealis, previously owned by OMV and ADNOC; Borouge, previously shared by Borealis and ADNOC; and Nova Chemicals, which XRG purchased from the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment for $13.4 billion, including debt. S&P Global forecasts that Borouge International will have revenues of $19 billion–$20 billion in 2026, which would rank it among the largest petrochemical companies in the world. OMV and XRG expect to generate $500 million in annual savings through the merger. Roger Kearns, former CEO of Nova Chemicals, is leading the new firm.
—Alex Tullo
Celanese augments production because of Iran war
The war in Iran has prompted Celanese to increase production at its Industriepark Höchst facility in Frankfurt, Germany. The company has restarted sooner than it had planned a vinyl acetate plant there that had been idle since the middle of last year. It has also commissioned a new vinyl acetate ethylene reactor and is shortening a maintenance turnaround for a plant at the site that makes the engineering polymer polyoxymethylene, also known as polyacetal. It is diverting methanol from Fairway Methanol, its US joint venture with Mitsui & Co., to supply the polyacetal plant. “Security of supply has reemerged as a top priority for customers in response to the current conflict in the Middle East,” the company says in a statement.
—Alex Tullo
Indorama builds phosphates in Egypt while Mosaic sells plant
Indorama Corporation is planning a phosphate fertilizer project in Egypt and will make an initial investment of $525 million. The plant, near the Suez Canal, will produce up to 600,000 metric tons of fertilizer and related inputs per year, mostly for export. Meanwhile, Mosaic intends to sell a phosphate fertilizer facility in Brazil. The company idled the plant late last year because of the rising cost of sulfur, a by-product of oil and gas refining. Sulfur prices had been increasing for the past several years, and the war in Iran has exacerbated concerns about supplies. About half of all seaborne sulfur shipments pass through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the International Energy Agency.
—Matt Blois
Ascend Elements files for bankruptcy
Despite raising more than $1 billion over the past decade, the battery materials firm Ascend Elements is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In a LinkedIn post, CEO Linh Austin says his team has been trying to cut costs and raise cash for the past year but couldn’t overcome the firm’s financial problems. Ascend was founded in 2015 to commercialize a new process for converting battery manufacturing scrap and used batteries into battery raw materials. Facing weak demand for electric cars and declining support for battery production under President Donald J. Trump, several US battery projects have reported significant setbacks. Last year, the battery recycler Li-Cycle entered bankruptcy; in November, ICL Group abandoned plans for a battery cathode plant in Saint Louis after the US Department of Energy canceled a grant. In his post, Austin says Ascend will continue with its cathode projects in Kentucky and Poland.
—Matt Blois
Syngenta launches new herbicide for glyphosate-resistant weeds
Argentina is the first country to approve Syngenta’s Virestina (metproxybicyclone) weed killer, which the company calls the first selective herbicide in nearly 40 years for controlling resistant grass weeds in soybeans and cotton. Syngenta says the chemical is effective against grass weeds that are resistant to common herbicides like glyphosate and clethodim. Metproxybicyclone is the fourth generation in the ACCase-inhibitor family of herbicides. Syngenta says it launched its third-generation product, pinoxaden, in 2006. It attributes the 2-decade gap to the challenges of finding new herbicides that are effective and safe. The company is also seeking approval in Brazil, Australia, the US, and Canada.
—Michael McCoy
Estonian biotech firm ÄIO finds customer for fermented oil
ÄIO Tech OÜ founders Nemailla Bonturi and Petri-Jaan Lahtvee Credit:
ÄIO Tech OÜ
A fermented oil from the Estonian biotechnology firm ÄIO Tech OÜ is getting its first commercial use in a skin-care serum from Tilk!, an Estonian cosmetic company. ÄIO was cofounded in 2022 by Petri-Jaan Lahtvee, a food technology and bioengineering professor at Tallinn University of Technology, and Nemailla Bonturi, a former researcher in his lab. The company uses yeast fermentation to convert agricultural sidestreams into replacements for animal fats and tropical oils. RedOil, the oil to be used in the Tilk! serum, is high in carotenoids, polyphenols, and sterols, as well as oleic, linoleic, and palmitic acids, ÄIO says.
—Michael McCoy
Vitol plans big plastics pyrolysis plant in the Netherlands
WPU (Waste Plastic Upcycling), the plastics recycling business of the European energy company Vitol, plans to build a plastics pyrolysis plant in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The plant will be adjacent to Vitol’s refinery and will be able to process 80,000 metric tons (t) per year of waste plastics per year into pyrolysis oil, which can be turned into new chemicals and plastics. The plant will be among the largest of its kind in Europe. WPU, which Vitol acquired in 2025, already operates a similar facility in Denmark that has 20,000 t of annual capacity.
—Alex Tullo
Quote of the week
“If you were to look at the top 10 chemicals that are considered the most toxic chemicals to aquatic life, 6PPD-quinone ranks number 2.”
Amazon Bio Discovery launches with agentic AI for antibody discovery
In a move to compete with Google and Microsoft in the artificial intelligence–enabled life sciences space, Amazon has launched Bio Discovery. The Amazon Bio Discovery platform uses agentic AI to assist researchers in choosing and running AI models for antibody drug discovery. The platform includes a catalog of AI models from several developers and a service allowing researchers to send their drug candidates for testing to Amazon partners, including Twist Bioscience and Ginkgo Bioworks. To test its system, Amazon collaborated with Nai-Kong Cheung at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to design antibodies for cancer. Dan Sheeran, general manager of health care and life sciences at Amazon Web Services, says Cheung was able to design 100,000 antibody candidates and send them for testing at Twist in just 4 weeks. That process yielded several top antibody candidates with “subnanomolar binding and a 100% target specificity with no cross-reactivity observed,” Sheeran says. Amazon says that it is pricing Bio Discovery according to usage and that it does not intend to seek royalties for any drug candidates that result from the platform.
—Max Barnhart
Novonesis to pay $50 million for a Thai fermentation facility
Novonesis, a Danish company focused on developing microbiology-related products, plans to buy a facility in Rayong, Thailand, owned by the Chinese biomanufacturing firm Meihua, for $50 million. Novonesis says the acquisition will expand its fermentation facilities in Southeast Asia and help serve its customers in the region. The facility could eventually be expanded to support production of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) used in infant formula, a growing business for Novonesis. The company’s first HMO was approved for use in China in 2024, and it expects approvals for its other HMOs in the country, according to its 2025 annual report. The Thai site will be ready for commercial operations in 2027. Novonesis also plans to boost production at its existing facilities in the US, China, and Brazil.
—Aayushi Pratap
Regeneron enters radiopharma deal with Telix
Regeneron and the Australian firm Telix Pharmaceuticals are partnering to develop and commercialize new radiopharmaceuticals. Specific therapeutic targets have not been disclosed, though Telix says the collaboration will focus on solid tumor targets. Regeneron will pay Telix $40 million up front to access its radiopharma manufacturing platform for four initial therapeutic programs. The firms will share commercialization costs and profits. Telix has the option to not pursue cofunding for a program, in which case the firm may receive up to $535 million in milestone payments per program.
—Sarah Braner
Novartis backs $137 million financing for ADC maker
The antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developer Sidewinder Therapeutics has raised $137 million in a series B financing co-led by the venture arm of the Swiss pharma giant Novartis and the investment firm Frazier Life Sciences. Founded in 2023, Sidewinder is developing bispecific ADCs for solid tumor cancers, including squamous cell carcinomas in lung, head, and neck cancers and colorectal cancer. Its compounds have yet to be tested in humans. Sidewinder expects to use the new funds to launch clinical trials next year. The financing is the latest in a string of recent activity for ADC developers, including Gilead Sciences’ $3.2 billion acquisition of Tubulis, Taiho Pharmaceutical’s $400 million acquisition of Araris Biotech, and a $350 million partnership between Pfizer and the start-up PostEra.
—Rowan Walrath
EC pledges funds for antimicrobial resistance and other public health crises
The European Commission (EC) has pledged $821.4 million to a global fund fighting HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria; $54.6 million for initiatives battling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Africa and Europe; and $58.7 million for research and development on AMR and neglected tropical diseases. The third investment will support two quasi-public organizations supporting novel antibiotics and antifungals: the Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, or CARB-X, which is based in the US, and the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership, or GARDP, which is based in Switzerland and was established by the World Health Organization and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative. AMR is involved in more than 35,000 deaths a year in Europe, according to the commission.
—Rowan Walrath
What we’re reading
- Long COVID will cost developed economies $135 billion: Bloomberg
- The Iran war’s impact on pharma will last a long time: Axios
- The war is threatening medical supplies for vulnerable countries like Sudan: The Week
2026 American Chemical Society
