Akzo Nobel N.V. (AkzoNobel; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) has announced its intention to seek agreement from the Board and shareholders of ICI Pakistan Ltd. (ICI Pakistan) to separate the organization's paints and chemicals businesses. Under the terms of the proposal,…
Teijin Limited (Tokyo; www.teijin.co.jp/english) has announced that the Utsunomiya Factory (Tochigi Prefecture) of Teijin DuPont Films Ltd., which had suspended polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film production following the earthquake in northeastern Japan on March 11, resumed partial operations on April 30.…
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; www.sabic.com), Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corp. (Tokyo; www.asahi-kasei.co.jp) and Mitsubishi Corp. (Tokyo; www.mitsubishicorp.com) have signed a strategic joint venture (JV) agreement to form a limited liability company, Saudi Japanese Acrylonitrile Company (SHROUQ), which…
The aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan caused the overall Global Chemical Production Regional Index (global CPRI) to slip by 0.1% in March, according to the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). According to data…
Koksan PET Packaging Industry Co., a leading producer of PET preforms has signed a contract with Uhde Inventa-Fischer GmbH (Berlin, Germany and Domat/Ems, Switzerland; www.uhde-inventa-fischer.com) to build a new plant for the production of high-quality polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in Gaziantep,…
Technip (Paris, France; www.technip.com), in consortium with Tomé Engenharia, was awarded by Petrobras a lump sum turnkey engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, for five new units at the Presidente Bernardes Refinery in Cubatão, state of São Paulo, Brazil. This…
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI; Tokyo, Japan; www.mhi.co.jp) has successfully established technology to produce ethanol for automobile fuel, satisfying the standards of the Japanese Automotive Standards Organization (JASO), from lignocellulose (soft cellulose) such as rice straw and barley straw. Verification…
KBR, Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by KiOR, Inc. (Pasadena, Tex.; www.kior.com) to build a first-of-its-kind biomass-to-renewable crude facility to be located in Columbus, Miss. The facility is designed to process approximately…
Avantium Pharma BV (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.avantium.com), a leader in solid-state research and pre-formulation for the pharmaceutical industry over the last 11 years, has been spun out from Avantium Holding BV in a management buy-out to create Crystallics (www.crystallics.com). The…
Borealis AG (Vienna, Austria; www.borealis.com) has invested €7.8 million to convert an underground naphta cavern in Stenungsund, Sweden, for butane use. The new cavern is now by far the largest in Europe, and can handle both butane at ambient temperature…