In the presence of German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Werner Wenning, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer AG, and Prof. Gottfried Plumpe, a member of the Board of management of Bayer MaterialScience AG, signed an agreement with Ruan Yanhua, President of the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park Corporation, to build a world-scale production plant for the coating raw material HDI (hexamethylene diisocyanate).

HomeSphere, a provider of e-commerce, collaboration, bid management, and software buyer incentive programs for the homebuilding industry, has announced the appointment of Glenn M. Renner as senior vice president of Sales and Marketing.

PQ Corp. has purchased and reserved approximately 24 acres of land use rights in the Tianjin Economic Development Area (TEDA) for the purpose of building a number of inorganic chemical plants to serve the Chinese market.

Frank Jakob has joined EWI as a program manager in the Technical Division.

Crane Nonwovens has created a new website, www.cranenonwovens.com, that provides information about the company and its facilities, the variety of nonwovens Crane produces, specific product applications, and information about custom formulations for specialty applications.

Bemis Company, Inc. has announced that its Board of Directors has elected William F. Austen to vice president, Operations, reporting to COO Henry Theisen.

Chris Ross has been promoted to the position of vice president, Sales at Charles Ross and Son Co.

Dow Corning Corp. has established a new global research center to pioneer the development of innovative technologies and applications for organosilane and silicon-containing chemicals.

Manufacturers will discover how they can become more globally competitive by applying the principles of lean manufacturing and continuous improvement throughout their enterprise at "Making It In America: Rising Up to the Global Manufacturing Challenge with Lean Manufacturing," the Society of Manufacturing Engineers' (SME) Management Forum, to be held on Wednesday, June 9, 2004, 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH.

Permacel, the pressure-sensitive tape subsidiary of Nitto Americas, has announced a manufacturing facilities consolidation that will result in the closure of its North Brunswick, NJ, production plant.