Latest News: Business
European research consortium Graphene Flagship doubles in size with 66 new partners
To coincide with Graphene Week 2014, taking place June 23-27 in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Graphene Flagship (www.graphene-flagship.eu) has announced that it is doubling in size. Already one of the largest-ever European research initiatives, with funding of €1 billion over the…
Clariant to increase production capacity for performance polymers in Germany
Clariant AG (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) is increasing production capacity for its Licocene Performance Polymers by 50% at its facility on the Frankfurt-Höchst Industrial Park in Germany. The debottlenecking of Clariant’s existing production line represents a low double-digit million Swiss Franc…
Jacobs Awarded Contract by Ashta Chemicals
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (Pasadena, Calif.; www.jacobs.com) says that it was awarded a contract to support Ashta Chemicals Inc. in making significant upgrades to its chlorine and potassium-based chemicals plant located in Ashtabula, Ohio. Company officials did not disclose the…
CAB economic indicator gains 0.5% in June
The Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), a leading economic indicator created by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com), continued its upward growth this month, with a 0.5% gain from May. Measured on a three-month moving average (3MMA), the CAB’s…
Neste Oil signs offtake agreement for algae-based biofuels from RAE
Neste Oil Oyj (Espoo, Finland; www.nesteoil.com) and Renewable Algal Energy, LLC (RAE; Johnson City, Tenn.; www.rae-energy.com), an algae biomass producer, have signed a contingent commercial algae oil offtake agreement. Algae oil is one of the alternatives being researched by Neste…
Oxea completes specialty esters plant in Nanjing
Oxea (Oberhausen, Germany; www.oxea-chemicals.com) says that its specialty esters plant in Nanjing, China, is now mechanically complete. After a construction period of slightly more than fifteen months the new state-of-the-art plant is currently in the commissioning and startup phase. The…
ExxonMobil Chemical Co. begins multi-billion dollar expansion project in Baytown
ExxonMobil Chemical Co. (Houston; www.exxonmobile.com) says that it has started construction of a multi-billion dollar ethane cracker at its Baytown, Tex., complex and associated premium product facilities in nearby Mont Belvieu. This project, and major investments ExxonMobil has made to…
U.S. and global CPRIs rise in May, ACC says
The U.S. Chemical Production Regional Index (U.S. CPRI) was 0.4% higher in May, following a 0.6% gain in April, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). Chemical output was…
Asahi Kasei will construct manufacturing plant for newly developed optical polymer
Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corp. (Tokyo, Japan; www.asahi-kasei.co.jp) has developed as a new optical polymer called AZP. Manufacturing facilities for AZP will be constructed at the company’s Chiba Plant (Sodegaura, Chiba, Japan), with start-up scheduled for early 2015. Applications for AZP…
Lanxess opens new rubber-production line in Dormagen
Lanxess AG (Cologne, Germany; www.lanxess.com) has completed the expansion of its Baypren polychloroprene solid rubber production operations in Dormagen, Germany. Werner Breuers, member of the Lanxess AG Board of Management, and Jan Paul de Vries, head of Lanxess’ High Performance…