Auñamendi Eusko EntziklopediaFund Bernardo Estornés Lasa

Unión Química del Norte de España, S.A. (UNQUINESA) was set up in Bilbao on 2 December 1939 with a share capital of three million pesetas contributed by the Lipperheide-Guzmán family group and Banco Vizcaya. In the mid 1920s, the Lipperheide family from Neheim (Germany) settled in Bilbao. The brothers Federico, José and Francisco Lipperheide Wicke started working in the booming Biscayan economy. In 1925, the brothers Federico and José took part in the creation of QUIMINOR, S.A., and four years later, in collaboration with the Biscayan businessman Enrique Guzmán Martínez, in the formation of the company Refinerías Metalúrgicas Lipperheide-Guzmán S.A., a company set up with a share capital of two million pesetas. In 1932, Federico and José, together with the businessman Enrique Guzmán, created the Sociedad Bilbaína de Minerales y Metales, Sdad. Colectiva. The factory was built in Luchana (Baracaldo) and was dedicated to the processing of minerals, metals and compounds from coal distillation. In addition to products from coal distillation, its range of products included various chemical compounds such as double salt of ammonium chloride and zinc, argenta (paste for galvanising), zinc oxide, zinc chloride in paste and powder form, sublimated ammonia hydrochloride (for galvanising, tinning and soldering), iron-free sodium sulphate alnehyde, activated carbon (for decolourising and deodorising) and lithopone. The latter product was very popular with paint manufacturers because of its improved hiding power. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the Lipperheide family moved to Seville and continued their business from there.

After the end of the military conflict, the capacity of the Luchana factory became insufficient for the existing demand. The Lipperheide family decided to build new facilities capable of producing new products. Despite this, the Baracaldo plant was not closed and production was maintained. The project for a new factory materialised in 1939 with the creation of UNQUINESA and its plan to manufacture formaldehyde, phenol and synthetic resins. The new facilities were built in Axpe (Erandio). On the right bank of the Nervión estuary and next to the mouth of the Udondo river and the Bilbao-Las Arenas railway line. Despite the restrictive economic policy of the new regime, UNQUINESA was considered to be of strategic interest and was authorised to import German machinery and technology, specifically from the German chemical trust I.G. Farbenindustrie. In 1940 the share capital of UNQUINESA was increased to 40 million pesetas and two years later to 80 million pesetas. The majority of the shares in these capital increases were subscribed by Banco Vizcaya. In 1944, work was completed on the first pavilions and the first production of methyl alcohol, formaldehyde and phenol was obtained. Synthetic phenol-formol resins (phenolic resins) were obtained from these last two compounds. As the European war progressed and the new facilities were being built, German technology began to be replaced by English technology.

In the 1940s UNQUINESA actively participated in the creation of the companies IBERPLASTICA and SINTÉTICA, S.A. In 1947 it built its own factory in Mataporquera (Santander) for the production of calcium cyanamide and calcium carbide. In 1952 it signed a collaboration contract with the English company Leicester Lovell and Co. Ltd. of Southampton for the manufacture of glues and urea-formal. In 1950 the share capital reached 300 million pesetas and in that year profits of 17.41 million pesetas were made. In 1953 it participated jointly with Firestone-Hispania in the creation of Compañía Española de Plásticos, S.A. (CEPLASTICA) through its subsidiaries IBERPLASTICA and SINTÉTICA. In 1960, with a share capital of 378 million pesetas, it allowed the American chemical multinational Dow Chemical to become a shareholder. From then on it changed its name to Dow-Unquinesa S.A.