Royal DSM (Heerlen, the Netherlands; www.dsm.com) announced that its business group DSM Engineering Plastics has opened an office in the San Francisco Bay area to support the consumer electronics business and the rapid growth of this segment. Richard Pieters, President…
The Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) plans to complete a debottlenecking project at its Freeport, Texas facility to increase capacity for glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) in the second quarter of 2016. The wide use of GMA, a versatile monomer for…
Kuraray Co. (Tokyo, Japan; www.kuraray.co.jp/en), along with Kureha Corp., Irochu Corp. and the Innovations Network Corp. of Japan, have agreed to dissolve Kureha Battery Materials Japan Co. (KBMJ), the joint venture for lithium-ion-battery materials. In addition, KBMJ’s operations related to…
The Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) announced that its joint venture in the Middle East – Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara) – has achieved a key milestone of first polyethylene production, meeting previously announced targets to begin production by year-end…
Fluor Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.fluor.com) has signed an agreement with U.K.-based private equity firm Arle Capital Partners to acquire 100% of Netherlands-based Stork Holding B.V. for an investment of €695 million ($755 million). Stork is a global provider of maintenance,…
Celanese Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.celanese.com) announced that it has successfully concluded the sale of its atmospheric (vinyl and acrylics) emulsions unit in La Canonja (Tarragona), Spain. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. IQOXE, a Tarragona-based petrochemical company specializing…
The American Chemistry Council’s (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) rose for October by 0.4% on a three-month-moving-average basis, according to the ACC’s latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report. The data show the 4th quarter…
Axens (Rueil-Malmaison, France; www.axens.net) has been selected for the modernization project of the Heydar Aliyev Oil Refinery that will enable the refinery, located at Baku, to increase its annual processing capacity, from 6.0 to 7.5 million ton/yr, and produce…
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC; Tokyo; www.m-kagaku.co.jp) and Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation (TNSC) announced plans to jointly market a dehydration system using the MCC-developed Zebrex zeolite membranes for bioethanol production processes in the U.S. MCC provides the zeolite membranes and modules…
Wood Group (Houston; www.woodgroup.com) has agreed to acquire The Infinity Group, a family-owned Texas Gulf Coast industrial construction and maintenance contractor serving the petrochemical, refining and gas processing sectors, for an initial consideration of $150 million. Established in 1952, Infinity…