German chemical firm Lanxess said it would bid for specialty chemicals maker Degussa, should current owner RAG decide to put Degussa up for sale. RAG is considering the sale of some assets as well as bringing others public. Degussa could be worth up to $13.4 billion, Bankhaus Metzler & Co. analyst Oliver Schwarz told Bloomberg. Lanxess recently said it maintains strong pricing power in the paints and rubber markets.

Lanxess Corp.'s Material Protection Products (MPP) business unit has signed a distributor arrangement with ChemPoint.com, a Web-based distributor of fine and specialty chemicals. ChemPoint will serve certain MPP customers based on the company's ability to deliver high-quality technical support along with personalized customer service. Working with ChemPoint also furthers Lanxess' commitment to exploring new and innovative channels to market

Dow Chemical unveiled plans for a joint venture with Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. that will "establish the competitive model for an integrated producer of polystyrene in the Americas," according to Dow CEO Andrew Liveris. According to a statement on the deal, Dow intends to contribute to the joint venture: a styrene monomer plant in Camacari, Brazil and six polystyrene plants in the U.S., Columbia and Brazil. For its part, Chevron Phillips Chemical plans to contribute a styrene monomer plant in Louisiana and a polystyrene plant in Ohio.

Celanese Corp. has entered into a strategic partnership with Accsys Technologies and its subsidiary Titan Wood, for application of Celanese's core acetyl products in Accsys' wood production process. Celanese, a producer of acetic acid and acetic anhydride, will become the exclusive supplier of acetyl products to Titan Wood's technology licensees for use in wood acetylation. Celanese will also make an equity investment of approximately $29.5 million in Accsys Technologies

India's Reliance Industries and U.S.-based chemicals producer Rohm & Haas Co. have signed an agreement to explore joint construction of an acrylic acid plant in western India. The proposed plant will be located in Jamnagar along India's west coast, where Reliance is currently still building what will become the world's largest oil refinery, according to a Reliance statement.

Dow Chemical announced an April price increase for its line of acrylic acid and esters (known as acrylates). Dow will increase prices by 5¢/lb in North America for glacial acrylic acid, butyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, methyl acrylate, and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate. Prices are also being raised in the Asia Pacific region, Latin America and Europe.