Latest News: Business
BASF opens polyarylsulfone plant in South Korea
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has announced that it has opened a new plant in Yeosu, Korea to strengthen the supply of Ultrason polyarylsulfone, one of the company’s high-performance thermoplastics. The new plant has a production capacity of 6,000 metric…
NUS and BASF embark on joint graphene research
The Graphene Research Center (GRC) at the National University of Singapore (NUS; http://graphene.nus.edu.sg) Faculty of Science and BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) have partnered to develop the use of graphene in organic electronic devices, such as organic light emitting diodes…
Braskem and Siluria to collaborate on ethylene technology
Siluria Technologies (San Francisco, Calif.; www.siluria.com), a commercial producer of fuels and chemicals made from natural gas, and Braskem S.A. (Sao Paulo, Brazil; www.braskem.com.br) have formed a broad-ranging collaboration around the deployment of Siluria's proprietary oxidative coupling of methane, or…
Alpek and United Petrochemical form JV for new plant in Russia
Alpek S.A.B. de C.V. (San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico; www.alpek.com) has announced that its subsidiary, Grupo Petrotemex, S.A. de C.V., signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with United Petrochemical Company (UPC), a subsidiary of Sistema JSFC, for the construction of…
U.S. chemical production rose during December, ACC report says
Overall production for the U.S. chemical industry rose 0.9% in December, reaching 89.0% of its average level for 2007, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board (Washington, D.C.; www.federalreserve.gov) that was included in the latest…
AEA Investors completes acquisition of Siemens Water Technologies
AEA Investors LP has secured regulatory approvals and closed on an agreement to acquire the municipal, industrial and services water and wastewater treatment operations and assets of Siemens Water Technologies LLC. The new company now will be Evoqua Water Technologies…
Sasol inaugurates plant to boost polyethylene production
Today, Sasol Ltd.’s (Sasolburg, South Africa) CEO, David Constable, and the South African Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, inaugurated Sasol’s new ethylene-purification unit, known as the Ethylene Purification Unit 5 (EPU5), in Sasolburg. Located at the Sasol Polymers…
Müller Kunststoffe to expand elastomer capacity in Germany
Müller Kunststoffe GmbH (Lichtenfels, Germany), the German arm of the Hexpol TPE (www.hexpoltpe.com) group, has announced plans to expand capacity with an additional production line for thermoplastic elastomers (TPE). The new line is expected to come on stream in the…
ThyssenKrupp combines capabilities in plant technology
As part of its strategic way forward, ThyssenKrupp AG (Essen, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp.com) is strengthening its plant technology business as a major growth area for the Group. To better exploit global market opportunities the previously separate plant technology companies of the…
Momentive acquires Louisiana proppants plant
Momentive Specialty Chemicals Inc. (Columbus, Ohio; www.momentive.com) has completed the acquisition of a manufacturing facility for resin-coated proppants located in Shreveport, La. from CRS Proppants LLC. The Shreveport facility has a capacity of approximately 200,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr).