TricorBraun has announced the acquisition of Smith Container, an Atlanta-based distributor with $55 million in revenue.

ASC is now seeking papers for its Fall Convention, to be held Sept. 19-22, 2004, at the Hilton Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.

Dr. Yu-Ping Yang has joined EWI, Columbus, OH, as a Senior Engineer.

The Penetone Corporation has announced that it has made a major investment to its customers and vendors by moving their manufacturing plant and offices from Tenafly, NJ, to Carlstadt, NJ.

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.