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Chevron Phillips announces successor for retiring CEO

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cpchem.com) announced that Peter Cella, president and chief executive officer (CEO), intends to retire from the company, effective August 1, 2017. Additionally, the company announced that Mark Lashier, currently executive vice president,…

BASF plans significant investment in ibuprofen capacities in Germany and North America

BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany: www.basf.com) plans to build a new world-scale plant to produce ibuprofen in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Ibuprofen is an active pharmaceutical ingredient that is used for treating pain, fever, and inflammation. The new plant, is scheduled to come…

BASF and Norilsk Nickel enter exclusive negotiations to cooperate on raw material supply for battery materials production in Europe

BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel; Moscow, Russia; www.nornik.ru/en) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding and entered exclusive negotiations to cooperate on the supply of raw materials for future battery materials production for lithium-ion batteries…

Amec Foster Wheeler completes sale of CFB boiler business

As part of the company-wide transformation program, which includes the sale of non-core assets, Amec Foster Wheeler (London, U.K.; www.amecfw.com) announces that it has completed the sale of its circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) boiler business to Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd (SHI),…

Metso investing €3.5 million in Africa for the manufacture of crusher wear parts

Metso Corp. (Helsinki, Finland; www.metso.com) is increasing its manufacturing capacity for large crusher wear parts castings used in minerals processing by investing in a second melting furnace at the Isithebe foundry in South Africa. The €3.5-million investment will ensure the…

U.S. specialty chemical market growth eases in May, ACC says

The American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) reported today that after a strong start to the second quarter, growth in U.S. specialty chemicals market volumes eased to a 0.3 percent gain in May, about half the pace of the…

NatureWorks launches Performance Chemicals division

NatureWorks (Minnetonka, Minn.; www.natureworksllc.com) has formed a Performance Chemicals Division to supply lactides, polyols, binder resins and chemical intermediates to companies that manufacture C.A.S.E. (coatings, adhesives, sealants, and elastomers), toners and fine chemicals. "The NatureWorks Performance Chemicals Division delivers renewably…

ExxonMobil and Synthetic Genomics achieve breakthrough in algae-based biofuels

ExxonMobil Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.exxonmobil.com) and Synthetic Genomics Inc. (SGI; La Jolla, Calif.; www.syntheticgenomics.com) announced a breakthrough in joint research into advanced biofuels involving the modification of an algae strain that more than doubled its oil content without significantly inhibiting…

BASF starts up expanded engineering plastics plant at Schwarzheide

BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) put the expanded compounding plant at BASF’s Schwarzheide site in Germany into operation. With the expansion of the plant up to 70,000 metric tons (m.t.) more Ultramid (PA; polyamide) and Ultradur (PBT; polybutylene terephthalate) can…

Dow announces quantum computing collaboration with 1QBit

The Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) and 1QB Information Technologies (1QBit) announced a collaboration agreement to develop quantum computing tools for the chemicals and materials science technology spaces. By combining Dow’s unique innovation capabilities with 1QBit’s leading expertise in the…