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Technip and Zachry awarded polyethylene project in the U.S.  

Technip (Paris, France; www.technip.com) and Zachry Industrial (San Antonio, Tex.; www.zhi.com), in a partnership called Gulf Coast Partners, have been awarded a substantial contract to design and build two polyethylene (PE) plants for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP (Chevron Phillips…

AkzoNobel finalizes divestment of Building Adhesives business

AkzoNobel (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) has finalized the €260-million divestment of its Building Adhesives business to Sika AG. Under the terms of the deal, all of Building Adhesives' approximately 550 employees have transferred to the new owners, along with the…

Arkema and Watan form joint venture; will build organic peroxides plant in Saudi Arabia

Arkema (Colombes, France; www.arkema.com), a worldwide producer of organic peroxides, and Saudi investment company Watan Industrial Investment have signed an agreement for the construction of an organic peroxide production site on the Al Jubail platform, Saudi Arabia. The facility, requiring…

Calendar: October – December 2013

NORTH AMERICA 2013 Gasification Technologies Conference. Gasification Technologies Council (Arlington, Va.). Phone: 703-276-0110; Web: gasification.org Colorado Springs, Colo. Oct. 13–16 International Water Conference. Engineers’ Soc. of Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, Pa.). Phone: 412-261-0710, ext. 13; Web: eswp.com/water Orlando, Fla. Oct. 17–21…

Thomas Kehl becomes president and chairman of the executive board at Coperian GmbH…

Kehl Diaz-Stringel Morgan Imbrogno Morgan   Thomas Kehl becomes president and chairman of the executive board of Coperian GmbH (Stuttgart, Germany), which specializes in compounding and bulk-materials-handling systems. Univar, Inc. (Redmond, Wash.), a global chemicals distributor, names Sam Sutherland vice…

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Evonik forms joint venture with Secar for lightweight composites, and more business news

Plant Watch Sibur and BASF sign longterm agreement for polymer additives September 12, 2013 — Sibur (Moscow, www.sibur.com) and BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) have signed a longterm cooperation memorandum to supply additives to be used for polymer production and…

Economic Indicators

Preliminary data for the July 2013 CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; the most recent available) indicate that the composite index decreased by 0.1% from the final June value. The value for the Equipment subindex fell, while those for the Construction…

The Owner Role in Capital Projects

Avoid delays, cost overruns and more with significant owner involvement   It is well known that the oil-and-gas, chemical and petrochemical industries are capital intensive. They require sophisticated facilities (plants), the installation of which are typically handled via capital projects…

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Malvern Instruments acquires NanoSight

Malvern Instruments Ltd. (Malvern, U.K.; www.malvernpanalytical.com/en), a leading global provider of instrumentation and expertise for materials and biophysical characterization, has acquired nanoparticle characterization company NanoSight Ltd. (Amesbury, UK; www.malvernpanalytical.com/en/products/product-range/nanosight-range/nanosight-pro). The acquisition was completed on Friday 27 September 2013. NanoSight has…

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Solvay to build large bicarbonate plant in Thailand  

Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) plans to build South-East Asia's largest sodium bicarbonate plant. Located in Thailand and with a total capacity of 100,000 ton/yr, this new facility will help meet the growing demand for high quality products from the…