The Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) plans to complete a debottlenecking project at its Freeport, Texas facility to increase capacity for glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) in the second quarter of 2016. The wide use of GMA, a versatile monomer for…
Kuraray Co. (Tokyo, Japan; www.kuraray.co.jp/en), along with Kureha Corp., Irochu Corp. and the Innovations Network Corp. of Japan, have agreed to dissolve Kureha Battery Materials Japan Co. (KBMJ), the joint venture for lithium-ion-battery materials. In addition, KBMJ’s operations related to…
The Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) announced that its joint venture in the Middle East – Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara) – has achieved a key milestone of first polyethylene production, meeting previously announced targets to begin production by year-end…
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) has signed an agreement with U.K.-based private equity firm Arle Capital Partners to acquire 100% of Netherlands-based Stork Holding B.V. for an investment of €695 million ($755 million). Stork is a global provider of maintenance,…
Celanese Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.celanese.com) announced that it has successfully concluded the sale of its atmospheric (vinyl and acrylics) emulsions unit in La Canonja (Tarragona), Spain. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. IQOXE, a Tarragona-based petrochemical company specializing…
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC; Tokyo; www.m-kagaku.co.jp) and Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation (TNSC) announced plans to jointly market a dehydration system using the MCC-developed Zebrex zeolite membranes for bioethanol production processes in the U.S. MCC provides the zeolite membranes and modules…
Wood Group (Houston; www.woodgroup.com) has agreed to acquire The Infinity Group, a family-owned Texas Gulf Coast industrial construction and maintenance contractor serving the petrochemical, refining and gas processing sectors, for an initial consideration of $150 million. Established in 1952, Infinity…
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) has completed a world-scale isononanol (INA) plant for BASF and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) in the Maoming Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone, Maoming, China. The plant, which is a first-of-its-kind in China, was recently…
Platform Specialty Products Corp. (West Palm Beach, Fla.; www.platformspecialtyproducts.com), a global diversified specialty chemicals company, announced that the scheme of arrangement with Alent plc (Woking, U.K.; www.alent.com), dated August 17, 2015, including the terms and conditions of Platform's previously-announced recommended…
LUXI Chemical Group Co., Ltd. will use Honeywell UOP’s (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com) Advanced Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) process to convert methanol derived from gasified coal into 293,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of ethylene and propylene at its facility in Liaocheng,…