Cargill (Minneapolis, Minn.; www.cargill.com) has acquired Colorado-based OPX Biotechnologies’ proprietary fermentation-based processes and systems. These technologies are used to produce bio-based chemicals from sugars for use in non-food applications such as lubricants, detergents, plastics, agrichemicals and personal care products. Cargill…
BASF (Ludswighfen, Germany; www.basf.com) has announced Wayne T. Smith as the new chairman and chief executive officer of BASF Corp., headquartered in Florham Park, N.J., effective May 1, 2015. He succeeds Hans Engel, who as chief financial officer for BASF…
Victrex plc (Thornton Cleveleys, U.K.; www.victrex.com) has successfully commissioned the first production stream of its new $138-million (£90 million) third polyaryletherketone (PAEK) manufacturing plant. The capacity increase is also a further foundation to progress Victrex’s pipeline of future opportunities, which…
Schneider Electric (Palatine, Ill.; www.schneider-electric.com) has acquired LimeWare, a provider of system-analysis and auditing software for Schneider Electric’s Foxboro Evo process automation and I/A Series distributed control systems (DCS). The acquisition provides Foxray software to help customers pinpoint and address…
Showa Denko Showa Denko K.K. (SDK; Tokyo, Japan; www.sdk.co.jp) has announced a transaction in which it will transfer its phenolic resins business to Aica Kogyo Co. Ltd. Annual sales of the business were ¥4 billion in 2014. SDK plans…
Celanese Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.celanese.com) has begun construction of a vinyl acetate ethylene (VAE) emulsions production unit at the company’s acetyls facility on Jurong Island, Singapore. The unit is expected to begin production by mid-2016. This Singapore unit will be…
Honeywell (Morristown, N.J.; www.honeywell.com) announced that its Performance Materials and Technologies division has opened a new manufacturing facility in China to produce state-of-the-art catalysts used to make components for plastics production. This new site in Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, has…
Solvay S.A. (Brussels, Belgium; www.solvay.com) has begun the construction of its production plant for highly dispersible silica (HDS) in Gunsan, South Korea, to address growing demand in Asia for energy-saving tires and to develop innovative HDS grades. Solvay officially broke…
Ineos Technologies (Rolle, Switzerland; www.ineos.com) has licensed its Innovene S Process for the manufacture of polyethylene (PE) to SOCAR Polymer for their high-density PE project in the Chemical Industrial Park located in Sumgait, Azerbaijan. The Innovene S HDPE plant will…
Endress+Hauser (Reinach, Switzerland; www.endress.com) is acquiring 100% of the process automation business of Colsein Ltda., its longtime sales and service partner in Bogotà, Colombia. “We believe Colombia represents a market with great potential for further growth,” explains Michael Ziesemer, Chief…