Ashland and Süd Chemie have reached contractual agreement on the formation of a global joint venture to merge their business activities in the foundry chemicals sector. The joint venture will be known as ASK Chemicals GmbH and will be headquartered in Hilden, Germany. Süd-Chemie and Ashland will each hold a 50% share in ASK Chemicals, while the operational management leadership will lie with Süd-Chemie.

The joint venture will employ approximately 1,300 people. Were it to have been in operation through the first six months of calendar 2010, it would have generated total sales of about €243 million, or approximately $303 million - numbers reflecting that while the global foundry market saw moderate activity in Q1, it gained considerable momentum in Q2.

Süd-Chemie and Ashland are currently partners in Ashland-Südchemie-Kernfest, a foundry chemicals company operating successfully in Europe since its formation in 1970. The new global joint venture will be comprised of three parts: Ashland-Südchemie-Kernfest; substantially all assets and employees of Süd-Chemie´s business unit for Foundry Products and Specialty Resins; and Ashland's Casting Solutions business unit. The transaction is expected to close toward the end of calendar year 2010, subject to customary closing

Operations merging into the ASK Chemicals GmbH joint venture are the Casting Solutions business unit of Ashland Inc., including assets in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Japan, the UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy, India and Korea; Süd-Chemie's Foundry Products and Specialty Resins business unit including the Süd-Chemie subsidiaries SKW Giesserei GmbH, WD-Giesserei-Technik GmbH, Tecpro Corporation Inc., Süd-Chemie Hi-Tech Ceramics Inc., Ajay Metachem Süd-Chemie Pvt. Ltd., and parts of Jiangsu Süd-Chemie Chemical Materials Co., Ltd.; and the companies belonging to the existing joint venture, Ashland-Südchemie-Kernfest GmbH, and its subsidiaries (AS Group).