Latest News: Business
Foster Wheeler awarded contract for U.S. gold facility
Foster Wheeler AG (Zug, Switzerland; www.fwc.com) says that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a contract for basic engineering for the Squaw Gulch ADR2 project, a new adsorption, desorption and recovery (ADR) facility at…
Meredian’s PHA ready for commercial-scale production
Meredian, Inc. (Bainbridge, Ga.; www.meredian.com), a privately held biopolymer manufacturer, and Tate & Lyle Plc (London, U.K.; www.tateandlyle.com), a leading global provider of specialty food ingredients and solutions, have confirmed successful pilot production of Meredian’s polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) formulation process. The…
Celanese will add polyphenylene sulfide compounding line in China
Celanese Corp. (Irving, Tex.; www.celanese.com) has announced that the company will expand its compounding capabilities at its Nanjing, China, integrated chemical complex to include Fortron polyphenylene sulfide (PPS). The PPS compounding expansion is expected to be operational by year-end 2014.…
Chemical engineers to support ‘Trillion Tonne Communiqué’
The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE; Rugby, U.K.; www.icheme.org) has given its support to the Trillion Tonne Communiqué — a global call to arms from organizations who take the science of climate change seriously and demand a proactive policy response.…
Milliken to double production capacity for polypropylene clarifying agent
Milliken & Co. (Spartanburg, S.C.; www.milliken.com) has unveiled plans for a major capacity expansion of its Millad NX 8000 clarifying agent for polypropylene (PP) at its Allen facility in Blacksburg, S.C. The company will double its production and add an…
Songwon acquires Sequent’s specialty chemicals business
Songwon Industrial Co. (Ulsan, Korea; www.songwon.com) and SeQuent Scientific Limited (Bangalore, India; www.sequent.in) have signed an agreement whereby Songwon will acquire SeQuent's specialty chemicals business. The acquisition includes SeQuent's entire polymer stabilizer business and one production site in Panoli, Gujarat,…
ACC’s Chemical Activity Barometer hints at solid growth
The Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), a leading economic indicator created by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com), has reached its highest peak since March 2008. Even accounting for seasonal adjustments, the unusually harsh winter skewed earlier data, and…
Novozymes to open new research and development center in N.C.
Novozymes A/S (Bagsvaerd, Denmark; www.novozymes.com) today announced the establishment of a new research and development center in the U.S. dedicated to its bioagriculture business. The center will be located near the Research Triangle Park in Cary, North Carolina, where the…
ICL IP completing 2nd production facility for polymeric flame retardants
ICL (Tel Aviv, Israel; www.icl-group.com) says that its ICL Industrial Products segment (ICL IP) is progressing as planned with the project to increase its production capacity of FR-122P, it's polymeric flame retardant (FR) to replace the HBCD FR which is…
Shin-Etsu to construct rare-earth magnet plant in Vietnam
Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. (Tokyo, Japan; www.shinetsu.co.jp) has decided to establish a new rare-earth magnet manufacturing plant in the Vietnam. The manufacturing capacity of the new plant will be 2,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) and the investment amount is about…