Cargill (Minneapolis, Minn.; www.cargill.com) has acquired Colorado-based OPX Biotechnologies’ proprietary fermentation-based processes and systems. These technologies are used to produce bio-based chemicals from sugars for use in non-food applications such as lubricants, detergents, plastics, agrichemicals and personal care products. Cargill…
BASF (Ludswighfen, Germany; www.basf.com) has announced Wayne T. Smith as the new chairman and chief executive officer of BASF Corp., headquartered in Florham Park, N.J., effective May 1, 2015. He succeeds Hans Engel, who as chief financial officer for BASF…
Victrex plc (Thornton Cleveleys, U.K.; www.victrex.com) has successfully commissioned the first production stream of its new $138-million (£90 million) third polyaryletherketone (PAEK) manufacturing plant. The capacity increase is also a further foundation to progress Victrex’s pipeline of future opportunities, which…
Schneider Electric (Palatine, Ill.; www.schneider-electric.com) has acquired LimeWare, a provider of system-analysis and auditing software for Schneider Electric’s Foxboro Evo process automation and I/A Series distributed control systems (DCS). The acquisition provides Foxray software to help customers pinpoint and address…
Showa Denko Showa Denko K.K. (SDK; Tokyo, Japan; www.sdk.co.jp) has announced a transaction in which it will transfer its phenolic resins business to Aica Kogyo Co. Ltd. Annual sales of the business were ¥4 billion in 2014. SDK plans…
Celanese Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.celanese.com) has begun construction of a vinyl acetate ethylene (VAE) emulsions production unit at the company’s acetyls facility on Jurong Island, Singapore. The unit is expected to begin production by mid-2016. This Singapore unit will be…
Honeywell (Morristown, N.J.; www.honeywell.com) announced that its Performance Materials and Technologies division has opened a new manufacturing facility in China to produce state-of-the-art catalysts used to make components for plastics production. This new site in Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, has…
Praxair, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; www.praxair.com) has signed a long-term contract to provide industrial gases to the China National Offshore Oil Co. (CNOOC). The project, expected to start up in 2017, will enable the reliable and efficient supply of industrial…
Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.; www.airproducts.com) has signed a product supply agreement with Big River Steel, LLC. Under the terms of the agreement, Air Products will operate an air separation unit (ASU) producing multiple industrial gases and a PRISM…
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) has begun the construction of its production plant for highly dispersible silica (HDS) in Gunsan, South Korea, to address growing demand in Asia for energy-saving tires and to develop innovative HDS grades. Solvay officially broke…