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Linde adds business unit focused on North American petrochemical projects

Technology company The Linde Group The Linde Group (Pullach, Germany; www.linde.com) has added a petrochemical plant business unit to its Engineering Division offices in Houston. The new regional business unit broadens Linde Engineering's capabilities in North America and will serve…

U.S. chemical exports grew in June; imports down, ACC report says

Exports of chemicals from the U.S. rose 3.2% in June to $16.7 billion, while imports were down 2.4% to $16.4 billion, according to data from the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com).…

Borealis takes full ownership of specialty polymers JV

Borealis AG (Vienna, Austria: www.borealisgroup.com) has announced the signing of an agreement with DuPont Holding Netherlands B.V. to purchase the company's 67% shareholding in Speciality Polymers Antwerp N.V. Speciality Polymers Antwerp N.V., located in Zwijndrecht (Antwerp, Belgium) is a joint…

Yara to acquire majority position in Brazilian fertilizer company Galvani

Yara International ASA (Oslo, Norway; www.yara.com) has entered into an agreement to acquire a 60% stake in Galvani Indústria, Comércio e Serviços S/A, for an enterprise value of $318 million. Galvani is an independent, privately held fertilizer company, controlled by…

Genomatica announces development plans for bio-based nylon intermediates

Genomatica (San Diego, Calif.; www.genomatica.com) has announced that major nylon intermediates — including hexamethylenediamine, caprolactam and adipic acid (HMD, CPL and ADA, respectively) — are the focus of its third publicly-disclosed development program. Genomatica is developing complete process technologies for…

Mexichem acquires German PVC specialist Vestolit

Mexichem S.A.B. de C.V. (Tlalnepantla, Mexico; www.mexichem.com) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire polyvinyl chloride (PVC) specialist Vestolit GmbH (Marl, Germany; www.vestolit.de) from Strategic Value Partners LLC, acting on behalf of its managed funds and accounts. The acquisition of…

Enterprise and Arkema sign propylene supply agreement

As part of its procurement policy for strategic raw materials, Arkema (Colombes, France; www.arkema.com) has reached an agreement for the supply of propylene with Enterprise Products Partners L.P., a leading U.S. midstream Energy Company. Taking advantage of the development of…

Ashland to expand hydroxyethylcellulose capacity in Nanjing

Ashland Inc.’s (Covington, Ky.; www.ashland.com) Ashland Specialty Ingredients commercial unit has announced that it plans to expand capacity at its Natrosol hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) production facility in Nanjing by 4,000 metric tons (m.t.), or approximately 40%, over the next 18 months.…

Calendar: September – November

NORTH AMERICA 5th Biobased Chemicals Conference: Commercialization & Partnering. Global Tech Community (Monrovia, Calif.). Phone: 626-256-6405; Web: gtcbio.com San Francisco, Calif. Sept. 18–19   43rd Turbomachinery and 30th Pump Users’ Symposia. Texas A&M University (College Station, Tex.). Phone: 979-845-7417; Web:…

Air Products names Seifi Ghasemi chairman, president and CEO…

Baumann Ghasemi Guy Quinn Blackburn Gerhard Baumann becomes managing director for Brookfield GmbH (Lorch, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany), a maker of laboratory instrumentation.   Specialty gas company Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.) appoints Seifi Ghasemi chairman, president and CEO, succeeding John McGlade,…