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Latest News: Business

Chemical equity prices drop in January, ACC report says

Chemical equity prices, as measured by the S&P index for chemical companies, fell by 10.4% in January, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). The benchmark S&P 500 index…

Ametek completes acquisition of Brookfield Engineering and ESP/SurgeX

Ametek, Inc. (Berwyn, Pa.; www.ametek.com) announced that it has completed two acquisitions: Brookfield Engineering Middleboro, Ma.; www.brookfieldengineering.com), a leading manufacturer of viscometers and rheometers, and ESP/SurgeX, a leader in energy intelligence and power-protection solutions. “Brookfield Engineering and ESP/SurgeX are excellent…

Maire Tecnimont subsidiaries awarded EPC contract for Socar PE plant

Maire Tecnimont S.p.A.’s (Milan, Italy; www.mairetecnimont.com) subsidiaries Tecnimont S.p.A. and KT – Kinetics Technology S.p.A have signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Socar Polymer for the realization of a polyethylene (PE) plant on a lump-sum turn-key basis.…

Air Liquide acquires hygiene and disinfection specialist in Brazil

Air Liquide’s (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) subsidiary Schülke, a specialist in hygiene and disinfection, has acquired Vic Pharma, a company operating in this sector in Brazil. Founded in 1990, Vic Pharma is the second-largest independent player in the Brazilian hygiene market…

Covestro opens pilot plant for new wastewater-recycling process

Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany; www.covestro.com)is testing a new, environmentally friendly process for recycling saline process wastewater in plastics production. A pilot plant for the process at the Krefeld-Uerdingen site in Germany was recently opened by Federal Minister for the Environment,…

Virent partners with Tesoro for commercialization of BioForming technology

Virent, Inc. (Madison, Wis.; www.virent.com) has entered into a new strategic relationship with Tesoro Corp. (San Antonio, Tex.; www.tsocorp.com) to accelerate the development and commercialization of Virent’s BioForming technology to produce cost effective, low-carbon, drop-in, bio-based fuels and chemicals. The…

Gevo enters license agreement to build renewable isobutanol plants in Argentina

Gevo, Inc. (Englewood, Colo.; www.gevo.com) has entered into a license agreement and a joint development agreement with Porta Hnos S.A. to construct multiple isobutanol plants in Argentina using corn as a feedstock. The first plant is to be wholly owned…

Shell to divest majority stake in Malaysian refining company

Royal Dutch Shell plc (The Hague, the Netherlands; www.shell.com) has reached a conditional agreement with Malaysia Hengyuan International Limited (MHIL) for the sale of its 51% shareholding in the Shell Refining Company (SRC) in Malaysia for $66.3 million. The transaction…

Croda achieves milestone in construction of Delaware renewable-surfactants plant

With the steel work that will house the main process reactor in place at its Atlas Point manufacturing site in New Castle, Delaware, Croda International Plc (Snaith, U.K.; www.croda.com) came a step closer to completing the first plant in North…

Topsoe establishes R&D center at Dalian Institute for Chemical Physics

  A newly established Topsoe R&D subsidiary — Haldor Topsoe Science & Technology (Dalian) Co. — has entered a comprehensive collaboration agreement with Dalian Institute for Chemical Physics (DICP). Under the framework of this collaboration agreement Topsoe will select and…