Westlake Chemical Corp. (Houston; www.westlake.com) and Axiall Corp. (Atlanta, Ga.; www.axiall.com) announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Westlake will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Axiall for $33.00 per share in an all-cash transaction,…
Unipetrol a.s. (Prague, Czech Republic; www.unipetrol.cz) has officially broken ground for the construction of a new polyethylene unit (PE3). It is the largest investment in the history of the Czech petrochemical industry in the amount of CZK 8.5 billion (approximately…
On May 1, Matthias Kaufmann, DI (FH), MAS, took over the management of the pumps division at Kral AG (Lustenau, Austria; www.kral.at), and simultaneously became a member of the management team. After completing his studies in manufacturing automation, Kaufmann worked…
PPG Industries, Inc. (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ppg.com) has reached a definitive agreement to acquire MetoKote Corp. and its affiliates. MetoKote is a U.S.-based coatings services business with 2015 global sales of approximately $200 million. The transaction is expected to close in…
Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) recently started operating a thin-film composites plant to coat membranes for use in organic solvent nanofiltration and gas separation at its Marl site in Germany. Evonik is a global leader in the area of…
American chemistry will continue to grow this year, according to the ACC Mid-Year 2016 Chemical Industry Situation and Outlook Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). Released today, the report concludes that American chemistry output increased in…
Italmatch Chemicals Group (Genova, Italy; www.italmatch.it) today announced that it has acquired (from an affiliate of One Rock Capital Partners LLC) 100% of Compass Chemical International LLC (Smyrna, Ga.; www.compasschemical.com), a leading North American company in the production and marketing…
Bear River Zeolite (BRZ; Preston, Idaho; www.bearriverzeolite.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of US Antimony Corp. (Thompson Falls, Mont.; www.usantimony.com) announced today it has added another production line to its plant. The new production line should double the production of granular…
Songwon Industrial Group (Ulsan, South Korea; www.songwon.com) and Heraeus (Inchon, South Korea; www.heraeus.com) announced today that they have signed a co-operation agreement to jointly develop and market high end specialty chemicals for the electronics industry.This new co-operation combines Songwon's strong…
Summary: A number of common industrial processes require vacuum, such as distillation or drying operations. The necessary vacuum has historically been supplied using a variety of technologies that have high operating costs in terms of both consumables (e.g., oil, water)…