Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cpchem.com) held a groundbreaking ceremony for its U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) Petrochemicals Project at the Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Tex. The groundbreaking ceremony signifies the start of construction for the USGC…
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) has completed the acquisition of the specialty chemical assets of ERCA Química, Ltda. in Brazil, enabling the group to more than double its surfactant production capacity in the country and to expand its access to…
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has agreed with Orbite Aluminae Inc. on the delivery of a new calcination system for Orbite's high-purity alumina production facility located in Cap-Chat, Québec. The contract value is below €10 million and it has been…
Synthos Group S.A. (Oswiecim, Poland; www.synthosgroup.com) is planning to build a neodymium polybutadiene rubber plant in Triunfo Petrochemical Complex in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The investment will be carried out provided that the 2013 contracts on raw material supplies…
The Linde Group (Munich, Germany; www.linde.com) has announced that it has entered into an Enterprise Framework Agreement (EFA) with Shell Global Solutions International B. V. to build ethane-cracking units on a global basis. The EFA is for ten years, with…
Alcoa Inc. (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.alcoa.com) has announced a $40 million investment in its Itapissuma, Brazil, rolling mill to increase production of specialty foils for aseptic and flexible packages. The expansion was announced at the ExpoAlumínio trade show in São Paulo.…
Praxair, Inc. (Danbury, Conn.; www.praxair.com) is planning on expanding its business and building a steam-methane reformer to increase the supply of hydrogen for its liquid hydrogen plant in Niagara Falls, N.Y. This investment will serve growing needs for hydrogen in…
Sulzer Chemtech (Winterthur, Switzerland; www.sulzer.com) is taking over Aixfotec GmbH, a leading technology company in extrusion systems for the production of polymer foams, based in Aachen, Germany. The acquisition was signed and concluded on March 31, 2014. This acquisition widens…
Aspen Technology, Inc. (Burlington, Mass.; www.aspentech.com), a provider of software and services to the process industries, announced it has acquired the Sulsim sulfur simulation software from Sulphur Experts Inc.(www.sulphurexperts.com). The Sulsim sulfur-recovery product has been used by the world’s leading…
Brenntag AG (Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany; www.brenntag.com) has acquired Gafor Distribuidora Ltd, a distributor of specialty solvents in Latin America, which is part of Grupo Gafor headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The largest industries being served by Gafor are…