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4th-quarter global chemical production continues at strong pace, ACC says

Data collected and tabulated by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) shows that growth in global chemistry during November was buoyed by a synchronized up-swing in the global economy. The American Chemistry Council’s Global Chemical Production Regional Index…

Synthomer divests Leuna production site to Alberdingk Boley

Synthomer (London, U.K.; www.synthomer.com) announced that it has sold its Leuna site in Germany to Alberdingk Boley Gmbh for an undisclosed price. The site will continue to manufacture products for Synthomer for an initial period prior to transferring the manufacture…

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries licenses carbon capture technology to Russian chemical producer Metafrax

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo; www.mhi.com) has concluded an agreement to license technology for its fluegas carbon dioxide (CO2) capture plant to PJSC Metafrax, a major Russian chemical company. Metafrax will use recovered CO2 to produce ammonia, urea, and…

Samsung Engineering wins contract for Sabic EO/EG plant

Samsung Engineering Co. (Seoul, South Korea; www.samsungengineering.com) announced that it received a contract from a manufacturing affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), Jubail United Petrochemical Company (JUPC), for a $ 700-million ethylene oxide–ethylene glycol (EO/EG) plant in Saudi Arabia,…

Chevron Phillips’ Cedar Bayou ethane cracker reaches mechanical completion

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cpchem.com) announced that its world-scale ethane cracker at Cedar Bayou in Baytown, Texas successfully achieved the major milestone of mechanical completion. The unit is now undergoing a series of rigorous commissioning activities,…

Umicore to acquire metathesis catalysts business from Materia

Umicore N.V. (Brussels, Belgium; www.umicore.com) has reached an agreement to acquire Materia´s metathesis catalyst IP and business portfolio for a price of $27 million. Materia is a leading U.S.-based producer of metathesis catalysts and thermoset resins. Its metathesis business is…

Stamicarbon wins contracts for a new, ultra-low-energy urea plant in China

Stamicarbon B.V. (Sittard, the Netherlands; www.stamicarbon.com), part of Maire Tecnimont Group, and Jiujiang Xinlianxin Fertilizer Co., (XLX), have signed contracts for the licensing of technology and for the delivery of proprietary equipment for a new ultra-low-energy urea plant to be…

Evonik invests in Danish hydrogen peroxide start-up HPNow

Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) has invested in the startup HPNow ApS (Copenhagen, Denmark; www.hpnow.dk) through its venture capital unit and now holds a minority stake in the company. HPNow has developed a technology for producing hydrogen peroxide in…

Formosa Plastics to increase PVC production in Baton Rouge

Formosa Plastics Corp., USA (Livingston, N.J.; www.fpcusa.com) will expand its production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin at its facility in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The production expansion will increase annual production capacity by 300 million pounds and is expected to start…

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries installs carbon-capture unit at Nippon Ekitan carbonic acid facility

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo; www.mhi.com) has completed installation of a carbon dioxide (CO2) capture unit at Nippon Ekitan Corp.'s Mizushima Plant in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. The new unit offers a recovery capacity of 283 metric tons per day…