Celanese history

After World War I, the two brothers resumed their prewar work, producing at a plant in England the first commercial cellulose acetate yarn in 1921.

In 1925, the two cartels merged, forming a single company called Interessen Gemeinschaft Farbenwerke, or IG Farben.

1926 Celanese Canada, a publicly traded company, is formed, with Amcelle owning the majority share.

In 1927, Celanese acquired control of The Celluloid Company and a new era of plastics emerged.

1930 Celanese Corporation of America commences trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Although the "artificial silk" initially met resistance, by 1939 the business began reporting huge profits.

Following the death of his brother and co-founder, Henri in 1945, Camille Dreyfus was also Managing Director of British Celanese.

In 1947, Celanese started producing acetate fiber at its plant near Ocotlán, Jalisco, Mexico.

The Celriver Plant began operations on August 30, 1948.

At the time acetate was introduced in the United States practically all better dresses were made of silk; by the 1950's less than two percent were silk.

By the end of the war, however, IG Farben's support for Hitler and the Nazi cause lead to the prosecution of its directors at Nuremburg and to its dissolution by the Allies in 1952.

In 1953, the company gained the worldwide rights, exclusive of the United States, to manufacture polyester; that same year it formed a United States subsidiary, American Hoechst Corporation, based in Somerville, New Jersey.

1956 Camille Dreyfus dies.

By 1958, Celanese had 13 domestic plants, three research and development centers, some 30 groups of products, and approximately 13,000 employees.

But by the late 1960's many of the foreign ventures went sour and Celanese began selling off many operations it had acquired during the diversification program.

1961 Celanese Corporation of America and Hoechst AG set up the Ticona Polymerwerke joint venture in Kelsterbach, Germany.

The production of Hostaform, a high-performance plastic for technical applications, begins in 1963.

1964 Celanese Corporation of America and Daicel Ltd. form Polyplastics Co., Ltd., a joint venture in Japan to produce and market acetal copolymer under Celanese licensing in Japan and the Far East.

John W. Brooks, who ran the acquisitions program under Blancke, succeeded him in 1968, just as the selling-off process was beginning.

In response to the apparent vulnerability to cyclical swings in synthetic fibers, John MacComber, who succeeded Brooks as president, planned another diversification campaign in the early 1970's.

The company also developed new lines in the 1980's, such as methanol, polybenzimadole, and high conductivity graphite fibers.

In 1981, the producer of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and other products collected $1.6 billion in sales and earned $24 million.

Celanese bought operations of Imperial Chemicals Incorporated in 1982.

In 1983, Celanese built a $20 million plant in Rock Hill, South Carolina to produce polybenzimidazole (PBI), a material used to fabricate high-performance protective apparel used in firefighter's gear and astronaut space suits.

Hoechst acquired the company on November 3, 1986 in a friendly takeover for $2.8 billion dollars, roughly $245.00 a share.

In 1987, Celanese Corporation was acquired by Hoechst and merged with its American subsidiary, American Hoechst, to form Hoechst Celanese Corporation.

Completed in July 1989, the reorganization left Hoechst Celanese with an Advanced Materials division, which constituted the company's involvement in engineering plastics and other advanced materials that the company expected to become involved with in the future.

Slated for acquisition this time was Copley Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Canton, Massachusetts-based manufacturer of generic and over-the-counter drugs with $52 million in 1992 sales and $12.3 million in earnings.

The deal was concluded in November 1993, when Hoechst Celanese obtained a nearly 53 percent stake in Copley for $546 million.

1994 "Transition '94" begins the realignment of the Group and the introduction of a new organizational structure.

The Celanese Fibers Company History was deposit in the Archives on September 20, 1995.

The lawsuit claimed that in spite of this knowledge, the defendants concealed the information and continued to market these products (Shell supplying PB resins to water pipe manufacturers and Hoechst Celanese providing acetal resins to manufacturers of pipe fittings) until approximately 1996.

1997 As a result of the strategic realignment of Hoechst AG, the various businesses are transferred to independent companies.

In 1998, in a $2.7 billion deal, Hoechst Celanese sold its Trevira division to a consortium between Houston-based KoSa, a joint venture of Koch Industries, IMASAB S.A., and Grupo Xtra, both of Mexico.

1999 Celanese receives gross proceeds of more than Euro1 billion from the sale of non-core businesses.

2000 Acquisition of polyvinyl alcohol business from Air Products strengthens acetyl chain.

2001 Significant technological progress lead to process improvements in acetic acid and vinyl acetate monomer: Construction begins on a new and expanded Ticona plant to produce GUR ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene.

2002 Acquisition of European emulsions and global emulsion powders business from Clariant AG. Divestiture of Trespaphan oriented polyproplyene film business.

On 16 December 2003, the United States private equity firm Blackstone Group announced a takeover offer for Celanese, after two years of wooing management.

Shareholders formally approved the offer from Blackstone on 16 June 2004, and Blackstone completed the acquisition of Celanese AG. The company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, and Blackstone changed the entity's name back to Celanese Corporation.

August 2005: Celanese Europe Holding, a subsidiary of Celanese Corp, acquired approx.

In June 2009, the company sold its polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) business to Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd.