BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has produced its first commercial volumes of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) from renewable raw material, and is offering this product to customers for testing and commercial use. The production process relies on a patented fermentation technology from…
Kuraray ( Tokyo, Japan; www.kuraray.co.jp/en) and DuPont (Wilmington, Del.; www.dupont.com) have signed a definitive agreement for DuPont to sell Glass Laminating Solutions/Vinyls (GLS/Vinyls), a part of DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers, to Kuraray for $543 million, plus the value of the…
The U.S. economy is likely to see continued, albeit conservative growth in 2014, according to the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) monthly Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), released today. The Chemical Activity Barometer is an established leading economic indicator,…
Sasol Ltd. (Johannesburg, South Africa; www.sasol.co.za) announced today that it has selected Technip S.A. (Paris; www.technip.com) as the primary contractor for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase of its proposed gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility in Louisiana. "The selection of Technip…
The U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index (U.S. CPRI) was lower by 0.2% in October, following a revised 0.3% decline for September, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). …
Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com) plans to expand its production capacity for dispersible polymer powders capacity at its Nanjing (China) site in 2014. By productivity improvement and debottlenecking measures in existing facilities, Wacker intends to essentially double its current…
Caloric Anlagenbau GmbH (Gräfelfing, Germany; www.caloric.com) has been awarded a contract for the engineering and manufacturing of a new thermal treatment plant with an integrated HCl recovery unit from a major chemical company in Poland. The thermal treatment unit is…
Tessenderlo Group (www.tessenderlo.com) announced that it has signed an agreement to sell its Aliphos feed phosphate business to EcoPhos, an entrepreneurial Belgian producer and developer with feed phosphate as its core activity. The sale comprises one production site in Rotterdam,…
Vencorex (Saint-Priest, France; www.vencorex.com), an isocyanate joint venture between PTT Global Chemical, of Thailand, and Perstorp Group, of Sweden, is expanding its global capacity for Tolonate HDI derivatives by establishing a new production unit in Thailand. With a capacity of…
Cabot Corp. (Boston, Mass.; www.cabot-corp.com) announced that it has completed its acquisition of the equity stake owned by Grupo Kuo S.A.B. de C.V. in its Mexican carbon-black manufacturing joint venture (JV), NHUMO, S.A.de C.V. NHUMO is the leading carbon-black producer in Mexico,…