Plant Watch Kemira to build sodium chlorate plant for pulp mill in Brazil May 9, 2014 — Kemira Oyj (Helsinki, Finland; www.kemira.com) will supply sodium chlorate to Klabin’s new pulp mill in Paraná, Brazil. Kemira will build, own and operate…
Market volumes for U.S. specialty chemicals were flat in April, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). The flat result in April followed a 1.3% gain in March and…
Ineos Technologies (Rolle, Switzerland; www.ineos.com) has announced that it has licensed its INEOS EPS process technology for the manufacture of regular and flame-retardant expandable polystyrene (EPS) to EPS Qatar at a new complex to be built in the Doha region,…
Solazyme, Inc. (South San Francisco, Calif.; www.solazyme.com), a renewable oil and bioproducts company, today announced that its joint venture with Bunge Global Innovation LLC (“Bunge”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bunge Ltd. (White Plains, N.Y.; www.bunge.com), has successfully produced its first…
Foster Wheeler AG (Zug; Switzerland; www.fwc.com) says that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a contract by Marubeni Corp. for the engineering and material supply of a new Terrace Wall steam reformer heater, including…
The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) has awarded Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for its reverse osmosis (RO) manufacturing facility in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Located in Jubail Industrial City II…
Westlake Chemical Corp. (Houston; www.westlake.com) has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Germany-based Vinnolit Holdings GmbH and its subsidiary companies from Advent International, a private equity firm. Vinnolit is an integrated global leader in specialty polyvinyl…
Clariant AG (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) has announced that it has signed an agreement with Siemens Fuel Gasification Technology to cooperate in the commercialization of a new, jointly developed sour-gas shift (SGS) technology for coal gasification. The agreement appoints Clariant as…
The Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), a leading economic indicator created by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com), has reached its highest peak since February 2008, while also posting its highest year-over-year gain since September 2010. Measured on a…
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; www.sabic.com) and the Korean petrochemical company, SK Global Chemical, have signed a 50-50 joint venture agreement in Seoul, South Korea for a total investment of $595 million to manufacture a range of…