Engelhard

Last updated
Engelhard
IndustryMetals
Founded1902 in Newark
FounderCharles W. Engelhard
DefunctMay 30, 2006 (2006-05-30) (purchased)
FateAcquired for $5 billion by BASF
Headquarters,
United States of America
An Engelhard silver bar EngelhardSilverBar.jpg
An Engelhard silver bar
An Engelhard poured 2 oz 99.99% pure gold bar 2oz gold Engelhard.JPG
An Engelhard poured 2 oz 99.99% pure gold bar

Engelhard Corporation was an American Fortune 500 company headquartered in Iselin, New Jersey, United States. It is credited with developing the first production catalytic converter. In 2006, the German chemical manufacturer BASF bought Engelhard for US$5 billion.

Contents

Early history

The company was started by Charles W. Engelhard Sr. in 1902 [1] when he purchased the Charles F. Croselmire Company in Newark, New Jersey. He subsequently founded the American Platinum Works in 1903 and acquired several other companies. In 1904, he purchased Baker & Co., a platinum smelting and refining business located in Newark and in 1905, he established Hanovia Chemical and Manufacturing Company also in Newark. Engelhard became the world's largest refiner and fabricator of platinum, gold and silver, a producer of silver and silver alloys in mill forms, operator of the world's largest precious metals smelter. They also developed liquid gold for decorative applications[ citation needed ].

Merger and spinoff of Phibro

In 1958, Engelhard's son Charles Jr. consolidated the family's holdings to form Engelhard Industries, Inc. as a publicly held company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1963, Engelhard, under the advisement of Lazard Frères, took a 20 percent interest in Minerals & Chemicals Philipp (MCP), a recently formed partnership between a small producer of nonmetallic minerals such as kaolin and fuller's earth, and Philipp Brothers, a trading firm specializing in the buying and selling of ores on the international market. Engelhard executed the transaction through a stock swap, giving up 8 percent of Engelhard as partial payment for the 20 percent interest in MCP.

Sales in MCP took off soon afterwards, mostly from Philipp Brothers' fast-growing ore trading. In 1964 it had sales of $US447 million, and by 1966 sales reached $US709 million. Even though Engelhard Industries did only about 40 percent of that figure, it was able, in September 1967, to work out a merger of the two companies that left the Engelhard family controlling about 40 percent of the new company. The new entity, which was called Engelhard Minerals & Chemicals Corporation (EMCC), was structured into three divisions: Minerals & Chemicals, which processed non-metallic minerals; Engelhard Industries, which refined and fabricated precious metals; and Philipp Brothers. Nearly one-half of the company's 1967 net income of $28 million was generated by the Philipp trading division, with the Engelhard metal processing contributing 34 percent and minerals and chemicals about 19 percent.

Philipp's trading continued to enjoy phenomenal growth as the world turned to spot traders to move scarce natural resources around the globe. By 1972, EMCC's sales hit $US2 billion, about 80 percent of it supplied by Philipp, and in 1974 revenue reached $5 billion. By 1981, Philipp Brothers earned 89 percent of the total corporation's $US26.6 billion in revenues and 88 percent of its $US532.7 million in profits. Management in the slow growing minerals-and-chemicals division, along with those in precious metals, felt overshadowed by their trading counterparts. This led to the spinoff of Philipp Brothers (later called Phibro), and renaming what was left the Engelhard Corporation.

Later history

Engelhard operated a Minerals & Chemicals Division and an Engelhard Industries Division with corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, New Jersey. In 1984, the company was realigned to consist of a Specialty Chemicals Division and a Specialty Metals Division. Engelhard expanded significantly through growth, acquisitions and joint ventures. Acquisitions included the Freeport Kaolin Company in 1985; most of the business of the Harshaw/Filtrol Partnership in 1988; the auto catalysts and petroleum catalysts businesses of Solvay Catalysts GmbH, in 1992 and 1994, respectively; the Mearl Corporation in 1996; the catalyst business of Mallinckrodt Inc. in 1998; Süd Chemie's fats and oils catalyst business in 2001; and the Collaborative Group, a personal care company, in 2004. In November 1994 Engelhard formed a joint venture with the French precious metals group Le Comptoir Lyon, Alemand, Louyot(CLAL) forming Engelhard CLAL, supplying Industrial Precious Metals to the European market. [2] On May 30, 2006, Engelhard was taken over by BASF after the board agreed for the takeover of BASF. BASF paid $US39 per share. The transaction totaled $5 billion.

On August 2, 2006, BASF began to rename Engelhard worldwide. This started in the US with BASF Catalysts LLC.

On April 1, 2010, BASF Catalysts LLC became part of BASF Corporation.

Environmental record

Catalytic-converter-equipped vehicles have helped cut other air pollutants by more than 3 billion tons worldwide between 1975 and 2000; of this 1.5 billion short tons was in the United States. Automobiles meet emission standards that required reductions of up to 98+ percent for HC, 96 percent for CO, and 95 percent for NOx compared to the uncontrolled levels of automobiles sold in the 1960s. Despite the fact that fuel use increased approximately 50 percent and vehicle miles traveled nationwide increased by 150 percent between 1970 and 1998, CO, VOC, and NOx emissions from motor vehicles in 1998 decreased by over 44 million short tons compared to 1970 levels. [3]

Engelhard received a 2004 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for "the design of safer chemicals", specifically the company's Rightfit organic pigments. [4] [5]

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst ranked Engelhard as the 32nd-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, just behind Danaher (a professional instrumentation, industrial technologies and tools & components company). [6] The study found Engelhard's most toxic pollution comprised cobalt (500 lb/year), nickel (2069 lb/year), chromium (1000 lb/year), and manganese (500 lb/year) compounds, based on Toxics Release Inventory data.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palladium</span> Chemical element, symbol Pd and atomic number 46

Palladium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired by her when she slew Pallas. Palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium form a group of elements referred to as the platinum group metals (PGMs). They have similar chemical properties, but palladium has the lowest melting point and is the least dense of them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhodium</span> Chemical element, symbol Rh and atomic number 45

Rhodium is a chemical element; it has symbol Rh and atomic number 45. It is a very rare, silvery-white, hard, corrosion-resistant transition metal. It is a noble metal and a member of the platinum group. It has only one naturally occurring isotope, which is 103Rh. Naturally occurring rhodium is usually found as a free metal or as an alloy with similar metals and rarely as a chemical compound in minerals such as bowieite and rhodplumsite. It is one of the rarest and most valuable precious metals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BASF</span> German chemicals company

BASF SE, an initialism and portmanteau of its original name Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik, is a European multinational company and the largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catalytic converter</span> Exhaust emission control device

A catalytic converter is an exhaust emission control device which converts toxic gases and pollutants in exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine into less-toxic pollutants by catalyzing a redox reaction. Catalytic converters are usually used with internal combustion engines fueled by gasoline or diesel, including lean-burn engines, and sometimes on kerosene heaters and stoves.

Heraeus is a German technology group with a focus on precious and special metals, medical technology, quartz glass, sensors and specialty light sources as well as electronic components. Founded in Hanau in 1851, the company is one of the largest family-owned companies in Germany in terms of revenue. Heraeus employs 17,200 people in 40 countries and generated a total revenue of €29.1 billion in 2022. The headquarters and head office are in Hanau, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perth Mint</span> Australias official bullion mint, situated in Perth, Western Australia

The Perth Mint is Australia's official bullion mint and wholly owned by the Government of Western Australia. Established on 20 June 1899, two years before Australia's Federation in 1901, the Perth Mint was the last of three Australian colonial branches of the United Kingdom's Royal Mint intended to refine gold from the gold rushes and to mint gold sovereigns and half-sovereigns for the British Empire. Along with the Royal Australian Mint, which produces coins of the Australian dollar for circulation, the Perth Mint is the older of Australia's two mints issuing coins that are legal tender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albemarle Corporation</span> American chemical company

Albemarle Corporation is an American specialty chemicals manufacturing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It operates 3 divisions: lithium, bromine specialties and catalysts.

Charles W. Engelhard Jr. was an American businessman, a major owner in Thoroughbred horse racing, and a candidate in the 1955 New Jersey State Senate elections. He controlled an international mining and metals conglomerate, Engelhard, founded by his father.

Envela Corporation, incorporated on September 17, 1965, is a holding company owning subsidiaries engaged in various business activities with a focus on recommerce. Envela's segments include retail stores, e-commerce, de-manufacturing, recycling, IT asset disposition (ITAD), and reverse logistics. Envela Corporation is divided into two sectors: DGSE, LLC and ECHG.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phibro</span> International physical commodities trading firm

Phibro is an international physical commodities trading firm. Phibro trades in crude oil, oil products, natural gas, precious and base metals, agricultural products, commodity-related equities, and other products. Phibro’s headquarters are located in Stamford, Connecticut.

Carl Donald Keith was a chemist who was inventor of the three-way catalytic converter, which has played a dramatic role in reducing pollution from motor vehicles since their introduction in the mid-1970s.

John Joseph Mooney was an American chemical engineer who was co-inventor of the three-way catalytic converter, which has played a dramatic role in reducing pollution from motor vehicles since their introduction in the mid-1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Umicore</span> Multinational materials technology company

Umicore N.V., known as Union Minière before 2001,. is a multinational materials technology company headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metallurgical assay</span> Compositional analysis of an ore, metal, or alloy

A metallurgical assay is a compositional analysis of an ore, metal, or alloy, usually performed in order to test for purity or quality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MMTC Ltd</span> Foreign exchange company of primary and non-primary products based in India

MMTC Ltd. is one of the two highest earners of foreign exchange for India and India's largest public sector trading body. Not only handling the export and import of primary products such as coal, iron ore, agro and industrial products, MMTC also exports and imports important commodities such as ferrous and nonferrous metals for industry, and agricultural fertilizers. MMTC's diverse trade activities cover third country trade, joint ventures and link deals and all modern forms of international trading. The company has a vast international trade network, spanning almost in all countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, and in the United States and also includes a wholly owned international subsidiary in Singapore, MTPL. It is one of the Miniratnas companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ScotiaMocatta</span>

ScotiaMocatta, originally founded as Mocatta Bullion in 1684, was a precious metal and base metal trading company that operated as the metals trading division of the Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) from 1997 until January 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bottom-blown oxygen converter</span> Smelting furnace

The Bottom-blown Oxygen Converter or BBOC is a smelting furnace developed by the staff at Britannia Refined Metals Limited (“BRM”), a British subsidiary of MIM Holdings Limited. The furnace is currently marketed by Glencore Technology. It is a sealed, flat-bottomed furnace mounted on a tilting frame that is used in the recovery of precious metals. A key feature is the use of a shrouded lance to inject oxygen through the bottom of the furnace, directly into the precious metals contained in the furnace, to oxidize base metals or other impurities as part of their removal as slag.

PAMP SA is an independently operated precious metals refining and fabricating company and member of the MKS Group. It was established in 1977 in Ticino, Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tadeusz Nowicki (industrialist)</span>

Tadeusz (Thadée) Nowicki is an industrialist who is the founder and president of the ERGIS Group.

Ludwig Jesselson was a German-born metal trader who served as president and CEO of Philipp Brothers.

References

  1. Price, Gold. "Engelhard Silver Bars: Their History and How to Buy Them". Gold Price. Archived from the original on 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  2. Nouvelle, L'Usine (17 November 1994). "Métaux précieuxLE CLAL ET ENGELHARD UNISSENT LEURS PROBLÈMESLes transformateurs d'or et de platine ont de plus en plus de mal à gagner leur vie. Le Comptoir Lyon, Alemand, Louyot et Engelhard ripostent en concentrant leurs activités" (in French). Retrieved 26 November 2023.
  3. "Advanced Motor Vehicle Emission Control Technology Celebrates 25th Anniversary" (PDF).
  4. Engelhard Rightfit Organic Pigments: Environmental Impact, Performance, and Value, 2004 Designing Greener Chemicals Award, EPA
  5. Green chemistry takes root, by Elizabeth Weise, USA Today
  6. Political Economy Research Institute Toxic 100 Archived October 1, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , accessed August 13, 2007