PPG Industries (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ppg.com) has announced plans to invest $60 million in a new manufacturing facility and commercial operation for its coatings businesses in the Lipetsk region of Russia. The company anticipates project completion in the second half of…
Chemical Engineering announced this year’s four honorees and the winner of the 2013 Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Achievement Award at an award banquet held at ChemInnovations last week in Galveston, Tex. This biennial prize that the magazine has bestowed since the…
Economic reports from this week showed mostly positive developments, but concerns remain over a potential debt-ceiling crisis and high oil prices, according to the most recent Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com).…
The Dow Chemical Company’s (Midland, Mich, www.dow.com) Unipol Polypropylene (PP) Process Technology from Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Technology LLC (a wholly owned Subsidiary of Dow) will be licensed by Qinghai Provincial Mining Co., Ltd., (Qinghai Mining) at a new…
Alpek, S.A.B. de C.V. (San Pedro Garza García, Mexico; www.alpek.com) has signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with United Petrochemical Company for the construction of an integrated purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant in Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia.…
The U.S. economy continues to improve, with forecasts now suggesting economic expansion into 2015, according to the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) monthly Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), released today. The CAB is a leading economic indicator, shown to…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com)says that its U.S. affiliate, BASF Corp., has entered into an agreement to commence a cash tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of common stock of the biotechnology company Verenium Corp. (San Diego, Calif.)…
Kemira Oyj (Helsinki, Finland; www.kemira.com) has signed an agreement to acquire Soto Industries Inc, a privately owned company, headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Soto is a specialty chemicals and services supplier to the pulp and paper industry. Soto supplies a broad…
Atlas Copco AB (Stockholm, Sweden; www.atlascopco.com), a provider of sustainable productivity solutions, has agreed to acquire Synatec GmbH, which provides quality-improvement solutions mainly to the automotive industry. Synatec, based near Stuttgart, Germany, provides products and solutions to improve flexibility and…
Safic-Alcan Groupe (Puteaux, France; www.safic-alcan.com), an international distribution group of chemical specialties, announces today it has acquired Laserson, a French chemical distributor. With this acquisition, Safic-Alcan has further enhanced its market position in the distribution of cosmetic specialty ingredients. Based…