Latest News: Business
WorleyParsons awarded Canadian bitumen-refinery project
WorleyParsons Ltd. (North Sydney, Australia; www.worleyparsons.com) has been appointed to provide detailed engineering and procurement services for the tankfarm, piperack, and flare units of Phase 1 of the North West Redwater Partnership’s greenfield bitumen refinery project, located in Sturgeon County,…
BASF to build world-scale specialty amines plant in Nanjing
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) will build a new world-scale production plant to manufacture specialty amines at its existing wholly-owned site in the Nanjing Chemical Industry Park in China. The plant, which is scheduled to come on stream in late…
Succinity produces first commercial quantities of biobased succinic acid
Succinity GmbH (Düsseldorf, Germany; www.succinity.com), the joint venture between Corbion Purac and BASF for the production and commercialization of biobased succinic acid, has announced the successful start-up of its first commercial production facility. The plant, located at the Corbion Purac…
U.S. specialty chemical market volumes fall in January, ACC says
In January, U.S. specialty chemicals market volumes fell 0.7%, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). The decline in January follows a 1.1% gain in December and a 0.5%…
JGC finalizes license agreement for sulfides in China
JGC Corp. (Yokohama, Japan; www.jgc.co.jp) has signed a license agreement for its proprietary hydrogen sulfide and sodium sulfide production-process technology with Zhejiang Engineering Design Co. (ZED) in China, to serve as a proxy for licensing the technology to Chinese clients.…
Kemira acquires BASF AKD emulsion business
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) and Kemira Oyj (Helsinki, Finland; www.kemira.com) announced today that Kemira will acquire BASF’s global alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) emulsion business. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2014. “Kemira is a…
ABB opens fifth factory in Brazil
ABB (Zurich, Switzerland; www.abb.com) officially inaugurated its fifth factory in Brazil in the presence of the Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Mauro Borges, and the Governor of São Paulo Geraldo Alckmin. The new plant is part of a…
Huntsman opens new thermoplastic polyurethanes production facility in Shanghai
Huntsman Corp. (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.huntsman.com) held an inauguration ceremony to mark the official opening of its new thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) production facility at the Jinshan Second Industry Zone in Shanghai, China. The 21,000-m2 plant, which cost $20 million,…
ZeoGas secures Air Liquide’s MegaMethanol technology license
ZeoGas LLC (Houston; www.zeogas.com) secures MegaMethanol technology license from Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions, a subsidiary of Air Liquide Group (Paris, France; www.airliquide.com). When completed, the production capacity of the licensed facility will be 5,000 metric tons (m.t.) per day…
Showa Denko to construct nitrous oxide plant in South Korea
Showa Denko K.K. (SDK; Tokyo, Japan; www.sdk.co.jp) has decided to increase its capacity for high-purity nitrous oxide (N2O), a specialty gas for semiconductor production, by cooperating with Dooam Industrial (Dooam), of South Korea. Dooam is headquartered in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province.…