The American Chemistry Council’s (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) Global Chemical Production Regional Index rose 0.5% in December, on a three-month-moving-average basis, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from ACC. The gain indicates that chemical production during the…
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) has agreed to sell its German-based refrigerant business and pharma propellants to Daikin in Japan, as its Special Chemicals Global Business Unit is gearing its activities towards selective high value-added segments in fluorine specialties and…
Arkema (Colombes, France; www.arkema.com) has started up a new facility for producing thiochemicals. The thiochemicals platform, which came onstream in Kerteh, Malaysia at the beginning of 2015, produces methyl mercaptan for use as a synthesis intermediate in animal feed and…
EnPro AS has awarded Pöyry Oyj (Vantaa, both Finland; www.poyry.fi) with the basic engineering assignment for a soda-ash manufacturing plant to be located in Kollsnes, Norway. Pöyry's scope of work includes basic engineering services for the integral plant operations including…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) has invested in Nanocomp Oy Ltd. (Lehmo, Finland) and now holds a minority share in the company. It was made as part of an investment syndicate with Finnvera Venture Capital. The investment sum was…
Sadara Chemical Co., a joint venture between The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) and Aramco, Saudi Arabian Oil Co., and Chemie-Cluster Bayern GmbH (CCB) have signed an agreement to cooperate and jointly support the development of chemical-based value chains…
ASD Global Inc. (Walnut Creek, Calif.; www.asdglobalinc.com) has joined Intergraph Corp. (Huntsville, Ala.; www.intergraph.com) in Intergraph’s SmartPlant Alliance as an Alliance Technology Partner, interfacing ASD’s software with Intergraph Smart 3D next-generation 3D design software. This partnership provides an integrated solution…
Cabot Corp. (Boston, Mass.; www.cabot-corp.com) has been awarded contracts by two U.S. utilities to supply its Darco Hg family of activated-carbon products to remove mercury from the flue gas of coal-fired power plants in the Midwest. In order to meet stringent…
Siemens AG (Munich, Germany; www.siemens.com) has appointed Janina Kugel, previously corporate vice president of Human Resources and Siemens' chief diversity officer, to the Managing Board by the Supervisory Board of Siemens. Kugel will succeed Siegfried Russwurm as head of Human…
Methanex Corp. (Vancouver, B.C., Canada; www.methanex.com) announced that the company successfully started up its new methanol plant in Geismar, La. The plant’s capacity is 1 million metric tons per year (m.t./yr) methanol. The plant was relocated from the company's production…