Business & Economics
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…
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…
Clariant acquires organic pigment business, invests in new plant in China
Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) today announced that it has acquired the Organic Pigment business of Jiangsu Multicolor Fine Chemical Co., Ltd (JMC; Jiangsu Province, China). JMC is a leading supplier of several types of high performance pigments and pigment preparations…
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…
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…