Salt Institute member Salinen Austria has just re-launched its presence on the Internet with clean and attractive new website . Check it out.
Earlier today, former Google engineers launched the Internet's newest, biggest search engine, Cuil . Pronounce it "cool." Cuil has indexed 120 billion Web pages and claims to deliver the results three times faster than any other search engine. It's worth a look. Cuil claims its search algorithm is based on content quality, not page popularity (we'd like to think they're right).
A search on "salt" produced a near-instantaneous 130 million results. Predictably, and reassuringly, the Salt Institute's website ranked #1. Ditto a search on "sodium chloride."
It's always gratifying to hear someone saying you're doing a good job. It's especially gratifying when they know what they're talking about.
True Value announced its top suppliers last month and named North American Salt, a unit of Compass Minerals as its 2007 Supplier of the Year in the lawn & garden category. Compass Minerals announced the honor today. Congratulations.
The Salt Institute was among 40 associations which have asked Congress to delay implemention of Customs and Border Protection's "10+2 Rule" until the agency can test a prototype to ensure it is workable. The group argued that the new data requirements for U.S.-bound container shipments would cost $20 billion, raising the cost of doing business and raising consumer prices. Rather than enhance homeland security, the measure "creates new security threats by greatly increasing the opportunity for containers to be tampered with" during the additional time needed for the more extensive clearing procedures, the letter avers.
Lest we forget the largest wetlands restoration project in the U.S. is underway at Cargill Salt's former saltworks on the south end of San Francisco Bay. This blog post reminds us that the project is "Enormous by any standards, ... the largest of its kind in the country and it could be decades before the ebb and flow of the tide can work its magic and restore this massive chunk of San Francisco Bay without hurting the birds and beasts that have grown used to their current habitat."
At 7:02 am this morning, Rohm and Haas announced it has sold its business to chemical giant Dow Chemical ; the sale includes Morton Salt. Rohm and Haas chairman and CEO Raj Gupta said combining the companies offered "transformative" potential. Dow chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris used the same word, "transformative," in Dow's release.
Each company has a spate of specialty businesses. The combination makes Dow "the world's preeminent chemical business," said Gupta. Dow will continue to operate Rohm and Haas as a separate unit and, in fact, transfer some of its exisitng speciality chemical businesses under the Rohm and Haas structure. Rohm and Haas will continue to operate its Philadelphia headquarters.
Dow offered $78 a share for the acquisition. Rohm and Haas closed yesterday at $44.83 in weak trading. Its 52-week high was $62.68.
Salt Institute president Richard L. Hanneman noted that Dow Chemical started its business as a salt-based chemical company in Midland, MI, where it is still headquartered. "Most people are surprised to learn that the single largest use of salt isn't to prepare our foods or keep our winter roads safe, but as the feedstock to the world's chlor-alkali industry, the same as petroleum is the feedstock to the petrochemical industry. "Chlorine chemistry touches every aspect of our lives," Hanneman explained.
