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Jacobs wins contract for Sahara Petrochemicals facilities in Saudi Arabia

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.; www.jacobs.com) received a three-year contract from Sahara Petrochemicals  to provide general engineering services at Sahara’s Jubail Industrial City facilities in Saudi Arabia. Under the terms of the contract, Jacobs is expected to provide engineering,…

Dow increases glycidyl methacrylate capacity

The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) successfully completed a critical debottlenecking project at its Freeport, Texas facility that increased capacity for glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) by 30% annually. The project, which was announced in December 2015, was launched to provide…

Clariant and Kilfrost terminate acquisition plans for European business

Specialty chemical maker Clariant AG (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) and Kilfrost plc (Newcastle, U.K.; www.kilfrost.com) today announced that the companies have terminated the acquisition agreement they entered into on November 19, 2015, relating to the sale and purchase of the European…

Westlake to acquire Axiall for $3.8 billion

Westlake Chemical Corp. (Houston; www.westlake.com) and Axiall Corp. (Atlanta, Ga.; www.axiall.com) announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Westlake will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Axiall for $33.00 per share in an all-cash transaction,…

Unipetrol breaks ground on Czech Republic’s largest petrochemical project

Unipetrol a.s. (Prague, Czech Republic; www.unipetrol.cz) has officially broken ground for the construction of a new polyethylene unit (PE3). It is the largest investment in the history of the Czech petrochemical industry in the amount of CZK 8.5 billion (approximately…

New management position at Kral

On May 1, Matthias Kaufmann, DI (FH), MAS, took over the management of the pumps division at Kral AG (Lustenau, Austria; www.kral.at), and simultaneously became a member of the management team.  After completing his studies in manufacturing automation, Kaufmann worked…

PPG to acquire coatings service provider MetoKote

PPG Industries, Inc. (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ppg.com) has reached a definitive agreement to acquire MetoKote Corp. and its affiliates. MetoKote is a U.S.-based coatings services business with 2015 global sales of approximately $200 million. The transaction is expected to close in…

Evonik starts up membrane coating facility in Germany

Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) recently started operating a thin-film composites plant to coat membranes for use in organic solvent nanofiltration and gas separation at its Marl site in Germany. Evonik is a global leader in the area of…

U.S. chemical industry will see continued growth in 2016, ACC report says

American chemistry will continue to grow this year, according to the ACC Mid-Year 2016 Chemical Industry Situation and Outlook Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). Released today, the report concludes that American chemistry output increased in…

Italmatch acquires Compass Chemical

Italmatch Chemicals Group (Genova, Italy; www.italmatch.it) today announced that it has acquired (from an affiliate of One Rock Capital Partners LLC) 100% of Compass Chemical International LLC (Smyrna, Ga.; www.compasschemical.com), a leading North American company in the production and marketing…