Business & Economics
Lingering tropical storm Isaac impacts on- and off-shore facilities along U.S. Gulf Coast
Earlier today, tropical storm Isaac was downgraded from Category 1 hurricane status and the National Hurricane Center predicts that it will be downgraded to a tropical depression on Thursday. Over the past several days, it has moved across Louisiana, dumping…
JGC awarded contract for EPC services of Japan’s first oxygen-blown coal IGCC plant
JGC Corp. (Yokohama, Japan; www.jgc.co.jp) has been awarded a contract by Osaki CoolGen Corp. for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services of the core facilities for an integrated coal-gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) demonstration plant. The lump-sum turnkey contract, which was awarded…
Operations begin for heavy rare-earth ore concentrate
Molycorp, Inc. (Greenwood Village, Colo.; www.molycorp.com) today announced the start-up of its new heavy rare-earth concentrate facilities at Mountain Pass, Calif., which will produce heavy rare-earth concentrate from freshly mined Mountain Pass ore. The ore will then be processed into…
Jacobs receives contract for soda-ash plant in India
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.; www.jacobs.com) has received a contract from RSPL Ltd. to provide engineering services for a new greenfield soda ash plant in Gujarat, India. Officials did not disclose the contract value, however noted that the total…
Foster Wheeler: FEED contract for CCS project in the U.K.
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 Samsung C&T ECUK Ltd. (Samsung), a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung C&T Korea, to participate in a…
JGC launches Japan’s largest Mega-Solar Power Project
JGC Corp. (Yokohama, Japan; www.jgc.co.jp) says that it will be joining Japan's largest-scale mega-solar photovoltaic power generation project to date, located in the seaside industrial district of Oita City, Oita Prefecture. This is the first domestic solar power project JGC…
Lummus propane-dehydrogenation technology selected for unit in China
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) has been awarded a contract by the Hebei Haiwei Group for the license and basic engineering design of a grassroots propane dehydrogenation unit to be located in Jingxian, Hebei Province, China. The unit will use…
BASF increases global PolyTHF capacity
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has increased its global annual capacity for the production of the chemical intermediate PolyTHF (polytetramethylene ether glycol – PTMEG) from 185,000 metric tons to 250,000 metric tons. The company has continuously developed and expanded its…
Global CPRI rose in July, ACC says
The Global Chemical Production Regional Index (CPRI) rose by 0.4% in July, according to the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com), marking the eighth month of gains. In its latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report, ACC says the index…
STB seeks to protect captive rail shippers from unreasonable rates
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB; Washington, D.C.; www.stb.dot.gov) announced two initiatives to explore ways to further protect captive shippers from unreasonable rail rates. First, the Board proposed to reform its rules on how it resolves rate disputes to ensure…