A PETROCHEMICALS firm, which owns a North-East technology company, has strengthened its position further after buying a Swedish chemical business.

Johnson Matthey, which runs Tracerco, in Billingham, near Stockton, has taken over Swedish-based Formox AB from Perstorp Speciality Chemicals AB in a £107m deal.

The company say the move will allow it to enhance its position as a leading supplier of syngas and chemical processing technologies, and use Formox's metal oxide catalysts for the production of formaldehyde from methanol, which is used as a chemical intermediate.

Formox, which has an engineering plant in Sweden and sales offices in the US, Singapore and China, saw sales hit £50m in 2012, and employs about 90 people.

It will be moved into Johnson Matthey’s process technology arm of its business.

Neil Carson, Johnson Matthey chief executive, said: “This deal complements our existing technologies for process catalysts, plant design and licensing.

“Formox has a strong position in a growing and profitable market, which gives us new opportunities to grow sales of catalysts and process technology in the wider petrochemicals market.”