In a recent announcement made by BASF and Entegris it was revealed that the companies have signed an agreement on the sale of BASF’s precision micro chemicals business to Entegris for $90 million. The deal includes technology transfer, intellectual property, and trademarks. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
BASF’s precision microchemcials business is a part of the surface treatment business unit of its coatings division which operates under the Chemetall brand. The unit develops, manufactures, and markets high purity materials including cleaning chemicals such as sulfuric acid, and Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) slurries which are used in the machining and surface conditioning of electronic materials.
The products manufactured under the precision microchemicals are primarily used for cleaning and polishing of hard disk drives, and wide band gap semiconductor ultra-hard surface materials including silicon carbide which have application in power electronics and advanced communications. The unit will be a part of the specialty chemicals and engineered materials division of Entegris.
Sulfuric Acid is a strong inorganic acid. Its major application is in the production of fertilizers. Other applications of Sulfuric Acid include chemical manufacturing, metal processing, petroleum refining, textile industry, automotive batteries, pulp and paper, and electronics. The global demand for Sulfuric Acid stood at around 275 million tonnes in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 4% during the upcoming years.
As per ChemAnalyst, “the deal between Entegris and BASF will surely benefit Entegris in terms of realising its full potential as it is a major player in specialty chemicals and advanced material solutions for the microelectronics industry. The demand for microelectronics is expected to grow strongly in the upcoming years with the rising consumption in the consumer electronics. Therefore, the demand for semiconductor cleaning chemicals such as sulfuric acid is also expected to grow.
