Westlake Chemical Corp. (Houston; www.westlake.com) has completed the previously announced acquisition of Axiall Corp. (Atlanta, Ga.; www.axiall.com) for $33.00 per share in an all-cash transaction, representing an enterprise value of approximately $3.8 billion, including debt and certain other Axiall liabilities.…
A $30-million expansion at Invista (Wichita, Kansas; www.invista.com) fiber manufacturing plant in South Carolina will enable the company to rapidly respond to small-lot, carpet fiber demands. The investment represents the industry’s first-ever offering of one-step, small-lot capability specifically for solution-dyed…
Global Bioenergies (Evry, France; www.global-bioenergies.com) and Cristal Union have announced that their subsidiary, IBN-One has awarded the first engineering contracts for its bio-isobutene plant to Technip (Paris, France; www.technip.com) and IPSB. Following a consultation process by IBN-One in spring 2016,…
Akzo Nobel N.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) has broken ground on its new powder coatings plant in Mumbai, India. The investment of €9 million will allow the company to increase capacity in the region, which forms an important part of…
Sadara Chemical Co. (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; www.sadara.com) started up its mixed-feed cracker (MFC) on August 28, 2016. The MFC is the only one of its kind in Saudi Arabia and will allow Sadara to produce a diversified range of plastics…
In a further step to expand its participation in the agricultural market in the Brazilian Midwest, Yara International ASA (Oslo, Norway; www.yara.com) announced the signing of an agreement for the acquisition of the fertilizers blending unit of Adubos Sudoeste in…
During the celebration of the five-year anniversary of the Lewabrane membrane-elements plant operated by IAB Ionenaustauscher GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of specialty chemicals company Lanxess AG (Cologne, Germany; www.lanxess.com), LANXESS also announced plans to double production capacity in the…
Yara International ASA (Oslo, Norway; www.yara.com) has officially opened the world’s first modular ammonium nitrate plant. The plant’s location is remote, in the desert-like landscape of Western Australia, northeast of Perth. Ammonium nitrate is the main component of explosives used…
Meridian Energy Group (Belfield, N.D.; www.meridianenergygroupinc.com) announced that the company has finalized a license agreement with Axens North America, Inc., a subsidiary of Axens (Rueill-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net), to define the underlying proprietary process technology for several of the refinery process…
Solvay SA (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) has inaugurated a new carbon-fiber production line at its Piedmont Facility in South Carolina, doubling production capacity of a key raw material to make carbon-fiber-reinforced composite materials and meeting increasing demand for lightweighting composite materials…