LyondellBasell (Rotterdam, The Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com) has announced plans to build a world-scale plant on the U.S. Gulf Coast with a capacity of 900 million pounds per yr (~400,000 metric ton (m.t.)/yr) of propylene oxide (PO) and around 2 billion pounds…
Umicore N.V. (Brussels, Belgium; www.umicore.com) has announced the acquisition of the business and assets of CP Chemicals Group, LP (Wickliffe, Ohio; www.cpchemicalsgroup.com). CP Chemicals is a refiner and recycler of cobalt- and nickel-containing secondary materials, such as superalloy scrap, and…
KBR Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) has been awarded a contract from Gemini HDPE LLC, a manufacturing joint venture between INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA (Ineos) and Sasol, to provide engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services for a new high-density polyethylene (HDPE)…
A groundbreaking ceremony was held in Ovadan-Depe near the capital of Ashgabad in Turkmenistan to launch the construction of a major plant focused on the conversion of natural gas into synthetic gasoline. The plant will be based on Haldor Topsøe…
The Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) rose 0.1% in July on a three-month-moving-average (3MMA) basis. The small gain indicates that “growth remained tepid at the start of the…
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) has been awarded a contract by Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen S.A. (PKN) for the license and engineering design of a new on-purpose propylene production unit to be located in Plock, Poland. The unit will use…
AkzoNobel N.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) today broke ground on its new decorative paints site in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. The facility is part of an investment in excess of €50 million to build manufacturing facilities for both powder coatings…
Siluria Technologies (San Francisco, Calif.; www.siluria.com) has announced the initial close of its Series D financing round. The round was led by Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV), the venture investment subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, the world’s leading fully integrated energy…
ABB (Zurich, Switzerland; www.abb.com) has signed an agreement to divest the ABB Full Service business to Nordic Capital for an undisclosed amount. The sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2014, subject to regulatory approval. The…
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo, Japan; www.mhi-global.com), working jointly with GAP Insaat Yatirim ve Dis Tiscaret A.S., a Turkish construction company and Mitsubishi Corp., will build large-scale ammonia and urea fertilizer production plants for Turkmenhimiya (TH), a state-owned chemical…