 Shell companies first entered the chemicals industry in 1929, via a partnership with Koninklijke Nederlandsche Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken in the Netherlands called NV Mekog, which manufactured ammonia from coke-oven gas produced at the steelworks in IJmuiden.Meanwhile, in the United States, the Shell Chemical Company (founded 1929) began the world's first production of ammonia from natural gas in California in 1931.It also started production of chemical solvents from refinery gases in California during the early 1930s while in 1942 it pioneered the production of butadiene, a key raw material for synthetic rubbers.