Orbia (previously Mexichem) is a company providing specialty products and methodologies in the precision agriculture, building and infrastructure, fluorinated solutions, polymer solutions and data communications sectors. It was founded in 1953 and has headquarters in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

History

In 1953 – Cables Mexicanos S.A. founded by a group of Mexican and American investors, to sell high-carbon steel wire ropes in Mexico. In the 60s Cables Mexicanos S.A. changed its name to Aceros Camesa. In 1978 – A control company was created "Grupo Industrial Camesa". It became a publicly-held company, listed on Mexican Stock Exchange. 1997 – Grupo Empresarial Privado Mexicano (GEPM), a company held by the del Valle Family, acquired Grupo Industrial Camesa.

Globalization, 2006–2013

*2011 – Mexichem acquired Alphagary Group, a producer of PVC, TPE and TPO compounds in the United States and the United Kingdom. *2012 – Mexichem acquires

Wavin Wavin B.V. is a Dutch manufacturer of plastic pipe (material), pipes, mainly for drainage and water supply purposes. The company was officially founded on 5 August 1955, its name deriving from water and vinyl chloride. The company provides plastic ...

, a European supplier of plastic pipes, expanding Mexichem's water management portfolio with acquired operations in 22 European countries.

Recent history, 2014–2018

*2014 – Mexichem acquired Vestolit, a producer of PVC resins in Europe, including HIS-PVC (high-impact modified polyvinyl chloride copolymer) and PVC paste. Mexichem acquired Dura-Line, a maker of HDPE conduit, duct and pressure pipe products for the telecom and data communications, energy and infrastructure industries. *2017 – Mexichem acquired 80% stake in

Netafim Netafim is an Israeli manufacturer of irrigation equipment. The company produces drippers, dripperlines, sprinklers and micro-emitters. Netafim also manufactures and distributes crop management technologies, including monitoring and control syste ...

, a precision irrigation approaches provider. This expanded the company's reach into the Middle East, Africa and Asia. *2018 – Mexichem acquired Sylvin Technologies, a Denver-based PVC compounds manufacturer, to expand into custom formulations as part of the Polymer Solutions group.

Change of name

In 2018, the Mexichem board of directors appointed Daniel Martínez-Valle as CEO. Mexichem was rebranded in 2019 as Orbia, from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word for a

sphere A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three-dimensional space.. That given point is th ...

and Bia, an ancient

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

personification of the concept of "force." In 2019, Orbia opened a new corporate office in the Torre Reforma building in Mexico City. The company launched Orbia corporate venture capital (CVC) fund, its first investment was into SeeTree, a Tel Aviv-based startup that provides tree health insights. On 19 January 2021, Orbia announced Sameer Bharadwaj as the new CEO.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Technology companies of Mexico Chemical companies of Mexico Companies listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange Mexican brands Mexican companies established in 1953 Companies based in Mexico City