Air Liquide (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com) officially started up its new, state-of-the-art steam methane reformer (SMR) unit located in the Chempark Dormagen site near Cologne, Germany. Air Liquide invested around 100 million euros in this highly flexible production unit, which…
The U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index (U.S. CPRI) decreased by 0.3% in March, according to the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report. The decline in March follows flat growth for February and is…
The Performance Products division of Huntsman Corp. (The Woodlands, Texas; www.huntsman.com) today announced plans to expand capacity of specialty amines at its manufacturing facilities in Petfurdo, Hungary and Conroe, Tex. The new multipurpose unit at Petfurdo extends the Huntsman manufacturing…
At a press conference at the Hanover Messe 2015 event, ABB (Zurich, Switzerland; www.abb.com) announced its latest acquisition to expand its technological leadership in collaborative robotics. Germany’s Gomtec GmbH, based near Munich, brings with it 25 employees whose expertise, in…
The Lubrizol Corp.’s (Wickliffe, Ohio; www.lubrizol.com) Performance Coatings business announced the addition of new hyperdispersant capacity at its Huddersfield, U.K. facility. The new capacity will be used for the manufacture of Solsperse hyperdispersants, additives that improve pigment dispersion in demanding…
Henkel AG & Co. (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.henkel.com) signed an agreement to acquire Novamelt GmbH, a privately owned company based in Wehr, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With this transaction Henkel will further enhance its competence in the area of hotmelt adhesives. In fiscal…
Celanese Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.celanese.com) and Mitsui & Co. entered into an exclusive arrangement to explore a joint venture (JV) for methanol production at Celanese’s integrated chemical plant in Bishop, Tex. The potential methanol unit at Bishop is expected to…
The Coating Resins business of Arkema (Colombes, France; www.arkema.com) has expanded acrylic resin manufacturing capacity in Araçariguama, Brazil by 60%. The new reactor will enable manufacturing of Arkema’s product chemistries previously unavailable in the region. With the startup of the…
Siemens AG (Munich, Germany; www.siemens.com) has selected Molycorp Inc. (Greenwood Village, Colo.; www.molycorp.com) to supply rare-earth materials over the next 10 years from its Mountain Pass, Calif. facility for incorporation into Siemens' high-efficiency, direct drive wind turbine generators. Molycorp will…
Kobe Steel, Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan; www.kobelco.co.jp) announces that its intermediate fluid LNG vaporizers (IFVs) will be used in the regasification facility for the Delimara LNG Regasification Terminal under construction in Malta. Kobe Steel will supply two IFVs. Each unit…