Latest News: Business
U.S. specialty chemicals market dips in September, ACC says
The Specialty Chemicals Market Volume Index fell 0.3 percent in September, reflecting the lingering effects of Hurricane Harvey on market volumes, according to the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). The decline follows a virtually flat performance in August.…
Jacobs selected for copper cathode production facility pre-feasibility study in Peru
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Dallas, Tex.; www.jacobs.com) has been selected by Teck Resources Ltd. (Vancouver, Canada) and Aurubis AG (Hamburg, Germany) to perform the pre-feasibility study (PFS) for a proposed copper cathode production facility in Peru. Under the terms of…
BASF inaugurates production plant for biocatalyzed acrylamide in Nanjing
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) celebrated the opening of a new production plant for biocatalyzed acrylamide (BioACM) at its site in Nanjing Chemical Industrial Park, Nanjing, China. With this investment in its wholly owned BioACM plant in Nanjing, BASF is…
Velocys to build first U.S. biorefinery in Mississippi
Velocys Inc. (Plain City, Ohio; www.velocys.com) has announced that it has signed a site option agreement with Adams County in the State of Mississippi for its first U.S. biorefinery to be located in Natchez, Mississippi. Velocys has been offered economic…
Air Liquide forms joint venture with Sinopec
Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) recently entered into a new joint venture with Sinopec (China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.) in Beijing, for the takeover and optimization of three existing ASUs (Air Separation Units) and the building of a new nitrogen production unit,…
AkzoNobel to expand Chemical Island in Brazil
AkzoNobel’s (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) Specialty Chemicals business has completed the expansion of a Chemical Island in Brazil to support a major project for Brazilian forestry company Fibria. The world’s leading producer of eucalyptus pulp from planted forests, Fibria has…
Outotec to deliver processing technology to gold mine in Ecuador
Outotec Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.outotec.com) has been awarded an order for the delivery of minerals processing technology packages by Lundin Gold for their greenfield project Fruta Del Norte in Ecuador. The contract value booked in Outotec's 2017 third quarter order…
Shin-Etsu invests in cellulose derivatives facilities in Japan and Germany
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (Tokyo; www. shinetsu.co.jp) will carry out ¥20 billion in facility investments in order to further strengthen its cellulose derivatives business. Cellulose derivatives are water-soluble polymers whose principle raw material is cellulose pulp. Their main applications are…
Celanese annnounces plans for global capacity expansion
Celanese Corp. (Dallas, Tex.; www.celanese.com) announced plans to expand the capacity of its global compounding assets and certain product-specific manufacturing production sites to support the significant growth in its engineered materials business. “As the global demand for specialty materials increases…
MOL Group enters contract with thysenkrupp Industrial Solutions Thailand for polyols technology
Following the announcement made in July about entering into contracts with Evonik and thyssenkrupp to produce propylene oxide, MOL Group (Budapest, Hungary; www.molgroup.info/en) has reached the next milestone in its key strategic investment. The additional agreement signed with thyssenkrupp Industrial…