Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com) announced that its subsidiary in India, Wacker Metroark Chemicals Pvt. Ltd., is expanding its existing silicone production at its Amtala site near Kolkata with a new hydrosilylation plant for manufacturing functional silicone fluids. The…
Lloyd’s Register (London; www.lr.org) has acquired cybersecurity specialist Nettitude. Founded in 2003, Nettitude is an award-winning provider of cybersecurity, compliance, infrastructure and managed security services to organizations worldwide and employs 140 cybersecurity specialists globally. The acquisition strengthens LR’s existing broad…
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…