Plant Watch
Altana scales up production of UV-curing resins and 3D-printing materials
April 14, 2025 — Altana AG (Wesel, Germany; www.altana.com) has scaled up the production of ultraviolet (UV) curing resins for industrial additive serial production. The company also started manufacturing and supplying UV-curing resins from the Cubic Ink 3D printing-material family to a medical technology company in the U.S. The first high-volume batch of UV-curing 3D-printing resin from Cubic Ink was produced together with Altana’s Actega division at its site in Cinnaminson, N.J.
Perstorp begins ester production at plant in Amsterdam
April 14, 2025 — Perstorp AB (Malmö, Sweden; www.perstorp.com) announced that its Amsterdam site has started up ester production, making a number of test batches of various esters. Following quality approval of the products, the facility will work to ramp up to larger production scales.
Neste starts up SAF production at Rotterdam Refinery
April 14, 2025 — Neste Corp. (Espoo, Finland; www.neste.com) started producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at its renewable products refinery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The refinery has been modified to enable Neste to produce up to 500,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of SAF. As a result, Neste’s global SAF production capability has increased to 1.5 million m.t./yr.
Solvay starts production line for rare earth elements in France
April 8, 2025 — Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) officially inaugurated its rare earths production line at the company’s site in La Rochelle, France. This expansion enables Solvay to start delivering rare earth materials for permanent magnets, with rare earths and recycled materials sourced from a diverse range of suppliers and mining partners.
Shin-Etsu Chemical to expand production capacities for pharmaceutical cellulose
March 31, 2025 — Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. (Tokyo; www.shinetsu.co.jp/) will make investments at two of its bases, the subsidiary SE Tylose GmbH & Co. KG (Wiesbaden, Germany) and the Naoetsu plant (iJoetsu, Niigata Prefecture, Japan) to strengthen its pharmaceutical cellulose business. In Germany, a new production facility for the pharmaceutical excipient L-HPC will be built adjacent to the existing facility, creating a dual base with the Naoetsu plant. Completion of the new production facility is targeted within the second half of 2026.
BASF starts up its first plant for recycled polyamide 6
March 27, 2025 — BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) announced the start-up of the world’s first commercial plant for loopamid — a recycled polyamide 6 material made entirely from textile waste. The production facility at the Caojing site in Shanghai, China has a production capacity of 500 m.t./yr. Feedstocks for the site include cutting scraps, defective cuts, offcuts and other production waste from the textile industry.
Versalis to start up new recycled polymer production plant at Porto Marghera, Italy
March 25, 2025 — Versalis S.p.A. (San Donato Milanese, Italy; www.versalis.eni.com) announced the opening of a new plant in Porto Marghera for the production of plastics made wholly or partially from mechanically recycled raw materials. The Porto Marghera facility has a production capacity of up to 20,000 m.t./yr of crystal polystyrene (r-GPPS) and expandable polystyrene (r-EPS), using secondary raw materials obtained from the recycling of expanded polystyrene (EPS) waste.
Röhm starts production at new MMA plant in Texas
March 24, 2025 — Röhm GmbH (Darmstadt, Germany; www.roehm.com) announced the successful start of methyl methacrylate (MMA) production at its new Bay City, Tex. plant, implementing its proprietary technology on a large industrial scale. Once in full production, the Röhm Bay City plant will produce 250,000 m.t./yr of MMA.
BASF expands production of polyester and polyurethane resin in Shanghai
March 24, 2025 — BASF announced that its Coatings division has expanded production capacity for polyester and polyurethane resin at its Caojing site. Originally established in 2015 with a capacity of 8,000 m.t./yr of polyester and polyurethane resin, the plant has now increased its capacity to 18,800 m.t./yr. In addition, BASF coatings is also planning to enhance its electrocoat binder production through process optimization at the site, starting in early 2026.
Mergers & Acquisitions
INEOS Energy acquires oil-and-gas assets in U.S. Gulf from CNOOC
April 2, 2025 — INEOS Energy Ltd. (London, U.K.; www.ineos.com) completed the acquisition of the U.S. Gulf business held by CNOOC Energy Holdings U.S.A. Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of CNOOC International Limited (Beijing, China; www.cnoocinternational.com). The deal increases INEOS Energy’s production globally to over 90,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil equivalent per day, and marks the third major investment by INEOS Energy in the U.S., in the past three years, following the significant LNG deal completed with Sempra in December 2022 and the acquisition of Chesapeake Energy’s oil-and-gas assets in South Texas in May 2023.
Lanxess sells Urethane Systems business to UBE
April 2, 2025 — Lanxess AG (Cologne, Germany; www.lanxess.com) completed the sale of its Urethane Systems business to UBE Corp. (Tokyo; www.ube.com). With completion of this transaction, Lanxess has received gross cash proceeds of approximately €500 million, corresponding to an enterprise value around €460 million.
Kuraray to acquire materials science startup Nelumbo
April 2, 2025 — Kuraray Co. (Tokyo; www.kuraray.com) plans to acquire Nelumbo Inc. (Hayward, Calif.), a startup company that has developed a unique materials technology for surface modification. The purchase price has not been disclosed. Nelumbo was founded in 2016 and has been exploring the application of various substrate-surface-modification technologies. The acquired technologies will expand Kuraray’s base of polymer chemistry, synthetic chemistry and related peripheral technologies.
Shell completes sale of Energy & Chemicals Park in Singapore
April 1, 2025 — Shell Singapore Ltd., a subsidiary of Shell plc (London; www.shell.com), has successfully completed the previously announced sale of its Energy and Chemicals Park in Singapore to CAPGC Ltd., a joint venture between Chandra Asri Capital Ltd. and Glencore Asian Holdings Ltd.
VARO Energy to acquire Swedish energy firm Preem
March 31, 2025 — VARO Energy (Zug, Switzerland; www.varoenergy.com) has agreed to acquire Preem Holding AB and Preem AB (Stockholm, Sweden; www.preem.com), Sweden’s largest fuel company. Preem owns two major fuel-manufacturing facilities in Lysekil and Gothenburg, Sweden. The two facilities have a combined capacity of 352,000 bbl/d, which equates to 80% of Sweden’s refining capacity. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2025.
Kemira and IFF form JV to produce biobased materials at scale
March 27, 2025 — Kemira Oyj (Helsinki, Finland; www.kemira.com) and International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF; New York; www.iff.com) are forming a joint venture (JV) manufacturing company to produce renewable biobased products on a commercial scale at a new manufacturing plant at IFF’s biorefinery in Kotka, Finland. Total investment is estimated at around €130 million, and commercial production is expected to start in late 2027. Both companies will have a 50% stake in the joint venture. The JV’s facility will convert up to 44,000 m.t./yr of plant sugars into bioproducts, including high-performance biopolymers, using the Designed Enzymatic Biomaterial (DEB) technology platform. ■
–Mary Page Bailey