The preliminary value for the January 2018 CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; most recent available) increased compared to the previous month’s value. The Equipment, Buildings, and Engineering & Supervision subindices were all higher for January, pushing the overall monthly CEPCI…
MOL Group (Budapest, Hungary; www.molgroup.info/en/) and JSR Corp. inaugurated a new synthetic rubber plant in Tiszaújváros, Hungary, which will produce 60,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of solution polymerization styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR). The most important feedstock of S-SBR is butadiene,…
The Lubrizol Corp. (Wickliffe, Ohio; www.lubrizol.com) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil its new compounding line in Songjiang, China. The new line is part of Lubrizol's strategic global capacity expansion program, supporting the company's Engineered Polymers business and well-known product…
Ube Material Industries, Ltd., a subsidiary of Ube Industries, Ltd. (Ube; Tokyo, Japan; www.ube-ind.co.jp), announced that it will establish a plant for manufacturing MOS-HIGE magnesium oxysulfate whisker materials in Thailand. The new plant will be constructed within the industrial complex…
Eastman Chemical Co. (Kingsport, Tenn.; www.eastman.com) announced the completion of a new urethane extrusion line at its Martinsville, Virginia, plant. The new plant will serve applications in the window films and paint-protection films sectors. “Eastman has world-class internal manufacturing and…
Indorama Ventures Public Ltd. (IVL; Bangkok, Thailand; www.indorama.net) has entered into an agreement to acquire M&G Polimeros Brazil S.A. in Ipojuca, Brazil. M&G's plant is the largest polyethylene terephthalate (PET) facility in Brazil, with capacity of 550,000 metric tons per…
Lanxess AG (Cologne, Germany; www.lanxess.com) has now commissioned a new production line for the manufacture of specialty compounds at its Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany site. The company has invested approximately €7 million in expanding the production capacities of its engineering plastics. Lanxess…
Toray Industries, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan; www.toray.com) reached an agreement with Koninklijke Ten Cate B.V. (KTC) to purchase the entire share of its subsidiary TenCate Advanced Composites Holding B.V. (TCAC), a Dutch carbon-fiber composite-material manufacturer. Toray and KTC plan to sign…
SOCAR Turkey Energy AS has selected Axens’ (Rueill-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net) ParamaX Technology Suite for its project of aromatics and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) complex in the future petrochemical site in Aliaga, Turkey. When the final investment decision is taken, this…
Toyo Engineering Corp. (Toyo; Chiba, Japan; www.toyo-eng.co.jp) has been awarded a contract for a project to construct a large-scale fertilizer complex in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh state, India. This complex will be constructed jointly with Toyo Engineering India Private Ltd., Toyo's…