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Westlake completes Axiall acquisition

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.…

Expansion in South Carolina extends Invista’s nylon 6,6 offerings

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…

Technip and IPSB win FEED contract for bio-isobutene plant

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,…

AkzoNobel breaks ground on powder coatings plant in Mumbai

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 starts up Saudi Arabia’s first mixed-feed cracker

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…

Yara to acquire fertilizer blending unit in Brazil

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…

Lanxess to double production capacity for membrane elements at Bitterfeld site

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 opens world’s first modular ammonium nitrate plant

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…

Axens to license process technologies for Meridian Energy refinery

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 inaugurates carbon-fiber production unit in South Carolina

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…