The specialty chemicals group Altana (Wesel, Germany; www.altana.com) has signed a definite agreement to acquire the global rheology business of Rockwood Holdings Inc. The unit, currently part of Rockwood’s Performance Additives segment, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of…
Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) has signed a long-term contract with BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) to supply carbon monoxide to its MDI (methylene diphenyl diisocyanate ) production unit located in Antwerp, Belgium. Air Liquide will invest in a new…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) is now significantly expanding precipitated silica capacity at its Maptaphut site in Thailand. Funded by an investment in the lower double-digit million euro range, the expansion is to be completed in the first quarter…
Foster Wheeler AG (Zug, Switzerland, www.fwc.com) announced today that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction (E&C) Group has signed an equity purchase agreement with CEFOC (The Fourth Construction Company Ltd. of China Electronics System Engineering) to purchase a…
Praxair, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; www.praxair.com) today announced the startup of its state-of-the-art, 135 million standard cubic feet per day (scfd) hydrogen plant serving the Valero petroleum refinery in Port Arthur, Texas and other customers. The new plant houses the largest…
Siemens Industry Inc., USA (www.siemens.com/metals), and consortium partner Midrex Technologies, Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.; www.midrex.com) received an order from the Austrian voestalpine group (www.voestalpine.com) to build a direct reduction plant in the U.S. The Midrex plant will be constructed near the…
DuPont (Wilmington, Del.; www.dupont.com) has launched production at its probiotic blending and packaging facility in China. The new site in Beijing represents DuPont Nutrition & Health’s first step in packaging probiotics into ready-to-market formats. Investment and capacity were not disclosed.…
KBR (Houston; www.kbr.com) today announced that it has been selected by Total to utilize KBR’s ROSE solvent deasphalting technology for use at their Antwerp petroleum refinery in Belgium. The ROSE unit is expected to significantly enhance the profitability of the…
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and Sojitz Corp. of Japan have received an order from PhosAgro-Cherepovets for a project to construct the largest ammonia plant in the Russian Federation. The estimated investment cost of the project is$785 million and the…
Ineos Technologies (Rolle, Switzerland; www.ineos.com) has licensed its Innovene S Process for the manufacture of medium-density and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to CNOOC Oil and Petrochemical Co. for its cracker complex located in Huizhou City, Guangdong Province of China. The 400,000-ton/yr…