This report provides detailed profiles of ten leading US specialty chemicals companies, containing descriptions of business, financial performance, growth strategies and SWOT analysis.

Dallas, TX -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/05/2010 -- ReportsandReports announce it will carry The Top 10 US Specialty Chemicals Companies: Response to recession, growth strategies and SWOT analysis Market Research Report in its Store.

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The specialty chemicals operations of major US players remained relatively resilient during the downturn compared to their other business lines. The 2005-09 period also witnessed a considerable rise in consolidation activities among US companies. Some players are focused on backward integration of operations whilst others are aiming to offload non-core franchises. Consolidation is in part prompted by fluctuations in raw material prices and rising competitiveness in the global marketplace.

The report profiles major US players in the specialty chemical segment and elucidates trends associated with these companies, and insights into the opportunities and threats facing them.. This report provides detailed profiles of ten leading US specialty chemicals companies, containing descriptions of business, financial performance, growth strategies and SWOT analysis.

Key features of this report

• Key drivers and resistors to growth of leading US specialty chemicals companies.
• Common industry characteristics in strategies and performance of US specialty chemicals companies.
• Analysis of financial performance and growth strategies of leading specialty chemicals companies during 2005–09.
• Overview of specialty chemicals product portfolios of leading companies.
• SWOT analysis of the leading US specialty chemicals companies.

Scope of this report

• Learn from the strategies of US specialty chemicals companies to target future growth markets effectively, avoid their mistakes, replicate their successes and learn of the threats they face.

• Benchmark your performance against the leading US specialty chemicals companies by understanding their strategies.

• Measure the resistance of specialty chemicals operations of US companies during the economic downturn.

• Compare performances of specialty and non-specialty chemicals operations of US companies during the recent global recession.

• Save time, money and resources on analyzing the performance of leading specialty chemicals companies using this report.

Key Market Issues

• Raw material price fluctuations: Review of the 2005-09 period indicates that profits of specialty chemicals operations of leading US players are influenced by fluctuations in raw material prices. Fall in prices during the economic downturn had considerable effects on operating margins of US players.

• Fall in demand during downturn: Fall in demand considerably suppressed operating income of US companies in 2009. However, prompt restructuring activities enabled several companies to maintain steady levels of operating margin.

• Relative resistance of specialty chemicals operations: Business Insights observes that the impact was less profound when compared to non-specialty chemicals. The contribution of specialty chemicals to the decline in consolidated revenues was relatively modest. Our in house developed Revenue Growth Index clearly differentiates the performance of specialty and non-specialty operations of US players.

• Consolidation: US players are focused on consolidating their position in the global specialty chemicals market through backward integration and shifting attention to core franchises. Rohm and Hass was acquired by Dow Chemicals while Hercules was taken over by Ashland.

Key findings from this report

• The 10 leading US companies generated $13.3bn sales in 2009, accounting for 4.6% of the $288bn global specialty chemicals market.

• Huntsman was the largest US specialty chemicals company with $3.8bn sales in 2009.

• US specialty chemicals companies were not insulated from the fall in volume sales experienced by the global chemicals industry due to the economic downturn. The majority of these players were affected by the fall in industrial input costs as was observed in their selling prices.

• Business Insights’ Revenue growth index indicates that during the downturn, specialty chemicals businesses of US players performed better than their non-specialty operations.

Key questions answered

• What was the market size of the global specialty chemicals industry by value in 2009?
• What will be the market size of the global specialty chemicals industry during 2010-14?
• What are the key trends observed in the US specialty chemicals companies and strategic responses that are taking shape?
• Who are the major US players in the global specialty chemicals market?
• What are the growth strategies of the leading 10 companies?
• What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing the top 10 players?

Key features of this report

• Highlight some of the key technologies for imaging biomarker development in different research or clinical settings, as well as pivotal technology developments.

• Analysis of the potential for using these technologies to improve drug discovery and clinical trials. The different organizational structures within pharmaceutical companies are discussed.

• Analysis of imaging biomarkers currently used in clinical practice as well as the future of imaging biomarkers in this setting.

• Case studies of individual imaging biomarkers and the companies or research collaborations responsible for their development.

Scope of this report

• Identify key technologies for development of imaging biomarkers to assist in biomarker discovery and development

• Identify the relevance of imaging biomarkers to drug discovery and development and the different organization structures being adopted by pharmaceutical companies to the implement them

• Learn about the important efforts of public-private consortia that are working to develop new imaging biomarkers, qualify existing imaging biomarkers and develop standards and clarify qualification processes

• Understand the potential for imaging biomarkers to improve diagnostic processes, enabling earlier disease identification and promoting preventive medicine

• Discover the potential of imaging biomarkers for improving decision making and terminating unsuitable drug projects at an early stage, as well as reducing costs in clinical care

Key Market Issues

• Improvements to the drug discovery and development process are needed urgently: Imaging biomarkers can be applied across the spectrum of drug discovery and development activities for validating targets, confirming mechanism of action, obtaining early indicators of bioactivity, assessing pharmacokinetic profiles, providing prognostic indicators and supporting regulatory filings and will help to improve decision making and success rates.

• Improved, non-invasive clinical diagnostic tools are required to help reduce the rising costs of health care: Currently around 95% of healthcare costs go towards treatment rather than prevention. However, if more money was spent on effective prevention the economic benefit could be considerable. Imaging biomarkers may provide diagnostic tools that identify diseases earlier in their pathology, enabling preventive measures to be taken.

• The development of imaging biomarkers relies on quantitative methods: whilst some imaging modalities are quantitative already, such as PET, others require specialist software or must be developed to incorporate quantification. Imaging technology developers are actively working in this field.

• The development, validation and qualification of imaging biomarkers is a large task: collaborative efforts that involve all stakeholders will be required if the full potential of imaging biomarkers in clinical medicine is to be realized.

Key findings from this report

• Imaging biomarkers are attractive: and are now widely used in drug discovery development and in clinical care. Imaging biomarkers provide non-invasive approaches that are translatable from the laboratory to the clinic and allow researchers and clinicians to see in great detail how drugs are behaving in vivo.

• Image quantification is improving: Nuclear imaging methods – PET and SPECT – are some of the most important to the field of imaging biomarkers because they have the required sensitivity and are potentially quantitative. The development of new molecular imaging probes is a growing and exciting area. MRI has limitations in terms of sensitivity as opposed to nuclear methods, although the methods are often non-proprietary and more MRI scanners are available in clinical practice. Sensitive contrast agents for MRI need to be very sophisticated. Future improvements in sensitivity, computer aided diagnostics and standardization will improve the potential for imaging biomarkers.

• Small animal imaging is a rapidly growing area in the preclinical development of new pharmaceuticals. Instrumentation to allow CT, PET, SPECT, MRI, ultrasound or optical imaging of small animals is available from a large number of suppliers and the largest pharma companies are actively developing their capabilities in this area. Some large pharma companies have also invested in dedicated clinical imaging centers, while others have chosen to outsource to specialist academic centers.

• In the clinical setting, MRI represents the most highly utilized technology and includes the diversity of methods available under the MRI banner, such as MRS, DCE-MRI, diffusion weighted MRI, fMRI and arterial spin labeling. The wide availability of MRI machines in hospital settings and imaging centers also makes this an attractive technique for biomarker detection. The use of nuclear imaging methods, such as PET and SPECT, is growing. This is catalyzed by the growing availability of targeted ligands that highlight particular pathways or metabolic events.

Key questions answered

• What has driven the increasing interest in imaging biomarkers in recent years?

• Which imaging modalities are at the forefront of the effort to develop and utilize imaging biomarkers for clinical practice now and in the future?

• To what extent can imaging biomarkers improve drug development? At which points should they be utilized and how?

• What is the role of public-private consortia in driving the discovery of methods and biomarkers? What is the membership of these consortia, what are their goals and how much have they achieved to date?

• What improvements in the provision of imaging services are required to enable the future use of imaging biomarkers? How does this differ in different locations?

Table of Contents

Executive summary 11
Competitive dynamics 11
Huntsman 11
Ashland 11
Chemtura 12
Rockwood 12
Albemarle 12
Cabot 13
W. R. Grace 13
Ferro Corporation 13
Cytec Industries 14
Lubrizol 14

Chapter 1 Introduction 15
Introduction 15
Methodology 15

Chapter 2 Competitive dynamics 17
Summary 17
Introduction 17
Defining specialty chemicals 18
Global specialty chemicals market 19
Competitive positioning of major US specialty chemicals companies 20
Trends 22
Drivers and resistors 22
US specialty chemicals demonstrated resilience during recession 22
US chemicals lead pre-recessionary consolidation 23
Slow shift towards natural, renewable raw materials 24

Chapter 3 Huntsman 25
Summary 25
Company overview 25
Recent financial performance 26
Performance by business segments 27
Performance of specialty chemicals business 28
Growth strategies 29
Partnerships and alliances 30
Emerging markets focus 30
SWOT analysis 31

Chapter 4 Ashland 32
Summary 32
Company overview 32
Recent financial performance 33
Performance by business segments 34
Performance of specialty chemicals business 35
Growth strategies 36
Emerging markets focus 37
Acquisitions and divestments 37
SWOT analysis 38

Chapter 5 Chemtura 39
Summary 39
Company overview 39
Recent financial performance 40
Performance by business segments 41
Performance of specialty chemicals business 42
Growth strategies 43
Restructuring operations 43
Partnerships and alliances 44
SWOT analysis 45

Chapter 6 Rockwood 46
Summary 46
Company overview 46
Recent financial performance 47
Performance by business segments 49
Performance of specialty chemicals business 49
Growth strategies 51
New product launches 51
Alliances and partnerships 51
Acquisitions and divestments 52
SWOT analysis 53

Chapter 7 Albemarle 54
Summary 54
Company overview 54
Recent financial performance 55
Performance by business segments 56
Performance of specialty chemicals business 56
Growth strategies 57
New product launches 58
Alliances and acquisitions 58
SWOT analysis 60

Chapter 8 Cabot 61
Summary 61
Company overview 61
Recent financial performance 62
Performance by business segments 64
Performance of specialty chemicals business 65
Growth strategies 66
New product launches 66
Partnerships and alliances 66
SWOT analysis 67

Chapter 9 W. R. Grace 68
Summary 68
Company overview 68
Recent financial performance 69
Performance by business segments 70
Performance of specialty chemicals business 70
Growth strategies 72
SWOT analysis 73

Chapter 10 Ferro Corporation 74
Summary 74
Company overview 74
Recent financial performance 75
Performance by business segments 76
Performance of specialty chemicals business 76
Growth strategies 78
SWOT analysis 79

Chapter 11 Cytec Industries 80
Summary 80
Company overview 80
Recent financial performance 81
Performance by business segments 82
Performance of specialty chemicals business 82
Growth strategies 84
New product launches 84
Acquisitions and divestments 84
SWOT analysis 85

Chapter 12 Lubrizol 86
Summary 86
Company overview 86
Recent financial performance 87
Performance by business segments 88
Performance of specialty chemicals business 88
Growth strategies 89
New product launches 90
SWOT analysis 91

Chapter 13 Other major companies 92
DuPont 92
Company overview 92
Specialty chemicals operations 92
Dow Chemical Company 92
Company overview 92
Specialty chemicals operations 93
Colorcon 93
Company overview 93
Specialty chemicals operations 93
International Specialty Products 93
Company overview 93
Specialty chemicals operations 93
Sensient 94
Company overview 94
Specialty chemicals operations 94
Hexion 94
Company overview 94
Specialty chemicals operations 94
FMC 95
Company overview 95
Specialty chemicals operations 95
Appendix 96
Definitions 96
Abbreviations 96
Index 97

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