Latest News: Business
Prayon to build sodium hexametaphosphate plant in Georgia
Prayon S.A. (Engis, Belgium; www.prayon.com), world leader in phosphate chemistry, will build a manufacturing plant for food-grade sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) that will double its production capacity and strengthen its position in the food sector. After preliminary studies, the decision was…
Bentley acquires modeling software company Acute3D
Bentley Systems, Inc. (Exton, Pa.; www.bentley.com) announced that it has acquired France-based Acute3D, provider of Smart3DCapture software for reality modeling. Through reality modeling, observations of existing conditions are processed into representations for contextual alignment within design modeling and construction modeling…
Air Liquide to construct ASU at Louisiana methanol plant
Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) has been selected by Chinese petrochemical company Yuhuang Chemical, Inc., as the supplier of oxygen for its new world-scale methanol manufacturing complex to be built in St. James Parish, Louisiana. Air Liquide will invest around $170 million…
Alcoa names two new vice presidents
Alcoa Inc. (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.alcoa.com) announced that Nahla A. Azmy has joined Alcoa as vice president, Investor Relations. Azmy had been vice president, Investor Relations and Communications for Rockwood Holdings, Inc., a leading global specialty chemicals company. She succeeds Kelly…
Showa Denko JV starts up alumina plant in Indonesia
P.T. Indonesia Chemical Alumina (ICA), a joint venture (JV) owned by Showa Denko K.K. (SDK; Tokyo, Japan; www.sdk.co.jp) and PT Antam (Persero) Tbk (Antam), of Indonesia, has started commercial operation of its new chemical alumina plant established in the Tayan…
Chemical construction spending up Y/Y, but equities slip in January, ACC reports
Spending on the construction of new chemical manufacturing facilities is up 73.5% year-over-year, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). The ACC’s current list of chemical industry projects totals…
Toyo announces appointment of new CEO
The Board of Directors of Toyo Engineering Corp. (Toyo; Chiba, www.toyo-eng.co.jp) have announced the appointment for the offices of president and chief executive officer (CEO). Effective April 1, 2015, current Director and senior executive officer Kiyoshi Nakao will take the…
Kuraray boosts production capacity for ethylene vinyl alcohol in Belgium
Kuraray Co. (Tokyo, Japan; www.kuraray.co.jp/en) will boost the ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH resin) production capacity of EVAL Europe N.V., a wholly owned Kuraray subsidiary located in Antwerp, Belgium. The capacity increase will add 11,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr)…
Global Bioenergies achieves milestone in renewable methacrylic acid production
Global Bioenergies (Evry, France; www.global-bioenergies.com) have reached the first milestone of the BioMA+ project, which is financed by the French “Investissements d’ Avenir” State program. The project aims at developing a renewable value chain to methacrylic acid, a key constituent…
Black & Veatch names managing director of water services
Black & Veatch (Overland Park, Kan.; www.bv.com) announced that Ann Bui has been named Managing Director for water services in the company's Management Consulting business. She is based in Los Angeles. Bui will guide sales, marketing and performance management. Bui…