The European Commission has fined five companies a total of €157 million for forming a styrene cartel that operated from May 2012 to June 2018. Affected are Sunpor, Synbra, Synthomer, Synthos and Trinseo. As the member that blew the whistle in 2017, Ineos escaped a fine.
AstraZeneca has agreed to acquire Neogene Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and manufacture of next-generation T-cell receptor therapies (TCR-Ts) – a promising and novel cell therapy approach to target cancer.
Interview with Lisa Z. Mobech and Bjol R. Frenkenberger, MIR Insight
QatarEnergy, teamed with US energy major ConocoPhillips, has agreed to supply Germany with around 2 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually over 15 years, starting in 2026.
To help supply the expanding global demand for PA 6.6, which it markets as Nylon, US-based trademark owner Invista, now part of Koch Industries, is building a new plant at its Camden, South Carolina, production site, where groundbreaking ceremonies were recently held.
French technology and services group Axens has signed a joint commercial cooperation agreement with Japan’s Chiyoda on their respective hydrogen technologies
Shell has sealed a definitive agreement to buy Europe’s largest biogas producer, Denmark’s Nature Energy, for €1.9 billion. The move is being seen as another sign of a former oil major’s effort to diversify its portfolio and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels that put it on the energy map.
In a move that will advance the launch of its first cell therapy product EpiDex, Swiss biotech Healiva has acquired a qualified cell bank from B. Braun Medical, a Swiss subsidiary of the German medical and pharmaceutical device company, B. Braun.
Polish companies Energy Group and Hynfra have signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to develop a project that would produce green hydrogen, green ammonia and methanol. The companies estimate the cost of the project to be more than €22 billion.
CH-Bioforce, based in Raisio, Finland, strives for a cleaner world.
The current crisis, exacerbated by the economic downturn and war in Ukraine, can be an opportunity to reduce dependence on fossil feedstocks and explore sustainable alternatives.
France’s TotalEnergies said it plans to build a new production line for high-performance recycled polypropylene used in automotive applications at its polymer production site in Carling, France.
SABIC has announced plans to set up a crude oil-to-chemicals (COTC) complex in Ras Al-Khair, Saudi Arabia. The complex is expected to convert 400,000 bbl/day of oil, the company said in a statement to the Tadawul stock exchange.
Brenntag and Univar Solutions have both confirmed reports from late last week that they are in talks about the German-multinational chemical distributor acquiring its US rival. Both companies stress that the negotiations are at a preliminary stage.
Executives and industry experts share their views on drivers as well as barriers for the use of flow chemistry in pharmaceutical manufacturing and the prospect for this technology in their industry sector.
Responding to rising market demand, Japan’s Fujifilm is spending $188 million to establish a manufacturing facility for cell culture media in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA. The site – Fujifilm’s fifth worldwide – will be operated by subsidiary Fujifilm Irvine Scientific.
German gas utility VNG, a combination of multiple providers, is joining up with Total Eren, a Paris-based renewable energy Independent Power Producer (IPP) soon to be absorbed by TotalEnergies to develop the market for green ammonia imports into Europe.
Danish pharma Novo Nordisk has announced plans to invest 5.4 billion Danish kroner to expand its existing facilities in Bagsværd.
Following all approvals, International Chemical Investors (ICIG) has completed its acquisition of the compounds business of the French Benvic group. The closing follows a binding agreement signed in August.
In a move to advance productivity, the healthcare division of Germany’s Merck is realigning its drug discovery and launch strategy. Global healthcare research chief Danny Bar-Zohar told a conference call this week that the Darmstadt-based company will seek to strike a new balance between in-house R&D and external collaboration.
Dutch storage operator Vopak and Malaysian energy company Petronas have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Southeast Asia.
US CDMO Cambrex has agreed to buy Snapdragon Chemistry, a compatriot company specializing in developing continuous flow and batch processes for APIs. Snapdragon is based in Waltham, Massachusetts, where it employs 74 people.
IMCD has agreed to buy Parkash DyeChem, a leading Indian distributor of specialty chemicals for construction and printing inks. Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close next month, were not revealed.
LyondellBasell (LYB) said it is moving ahead with engineering for a commercial scale advanced plastics waste recycling plant it intends to build at its Wesseling, Germany, production site together with Germany’s 23 Oaks Investments.
As abortion continues to dominate the political discussion in the US and at least half of the 50 states move toward outlawing the procedure in response to last summer’s Supreme Court decision that it is not a constitutional right, conservative and religious groupings are pushing for a ban on sales of the oral abortifacient Mifeprex. (mifepristone).
Saudi Aramco has announced that its South Korean affiliate S-Oil will proceed with a refinery-petrochemical project at Ulsan. The complex will represent the first commercialization of Aramco and Lummus Technology’s thermal crude-to-chemicals technology (TC2C) when it starts up in 2026.
After a long delay, Shell has started up its controversial super-sized US ethane cracker and downstream polyethylene complex at Monaca in western Pennsylvania, close to the Utica and Marcellus shale basins in the heart of the US fracking industry.
John Wood Group has settled a lawsuit brought by Enterprise Products relating to delays on a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) project in Mont Belvieu, Texas, USA.
Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) and QatarEnergy — formerly Qatar Petroleum — have taken a positive final investment decision on their proposed $8.5 billion joint ethylene/PE complex in the US. They have formed a joint venture called Golden Triangle Polymers, owned 51% by CPChem and 49% by QatarEnergy.
Germany has tapped US industrial gases producer Air Products and Oiltanking Deutschland, part of the Mabanaft group, to realise the country’s first large-scale, green energy project as it transitions toward making hydrogen the backbone of its renewable energy strategy.
LyondellBasell is evaluating an expansion of propylene production at its Channelview complex on the US Gulf coast, widening output by 400,000 t/y. A final decision is expected at the end of 2023. The expansion would lift output by more than 35% and create some 10-15 new jobs.
Germany’s Merck is investing over €290 million in US biosafety testing capacity at Rockville, Maryland, to “significantly increase” its ability to meet double-digit demand growth. The largest investment in contract testing in its history will create more than 500 new jobs.
US titanium dioxide pigments and performance additives producer Venator Materials has agreed to sell its iron oxide business to Hong Kong’s Cathay Industries for an enterprise value of $140 million. The transaction is expected to close by the end of quarter one 2023.
International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG) has entered exclusive negotiations with Nippon Soda and made what it said is a “firm and binding offer” to acquire the Japanese group’s offshoot Métaux Spéciaux (MSSA), a sodium metal specialist.
Univation Technologies has been selected by PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional (PT-KPI) to provide its Unipol PE process for a new 700,000 t/y plant to be installed at the latter’s Tuban complex in East Java, Indonesia.
