BASF has completed its capacity expansion for key specialty amines manufactured at its US site in Geismar, Louisiana. The project, announced in June 2022, allows the company to increase production of polyetheramines and amine catalysts marketed under the Baxxodur and Lupragen brands.
Rising demand for sustainability-related products will create a huge growth opportunity for chemical companies.
At the end of last week, Belgian chemicals and recycling company Umicore held the groundbreaking ceremony in Changshu, Jiangsu province, China, for its new large-scale fuel cell catalyst plant.
Japanese manufacturer Asahi Kasei invests in Canadian startup Ionomr Innovations, known for its high-performance anion exchange membrane (AEM). The membrane has applications in cost-efficient and scalable green hydrogen production.
Capchem Technology USA Inc., a subsidiary of Shenzhen Capchem Technology Co., may invest €320 million ($350 million) in building an integrated carbonate solvent and lithium-ion battery electrolyte facility in Louisiana, USA.
South Korea-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) SK Bioscience wants to expand its vaccine manufacturing plant located in Andong, South Korea to approximately 4,200 m2 through joint investment with Sanofi.
UK’s Elementis, a global specialty chemicals company, will be opening a new unit in Portugal, featuring a center of excellence and R&D laboratory. The new unit, which will be headquartered in Porto and is scheduled to open in the first half of 2024, will support the company’s business segments Personal Care and Performance Specialties and also reinforce the current R&D capacity of the Elementis' laboratories in Asia and the Americas.
On Monday, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced £29.5 billion ($36.8 billion) of private sector investment in Britain at a gathering of global executives intended to showcase Britain’s appeal to global investors.
Novo Nordisk wants to make another major capital investment in production capacity for its diabetes and obesity therapies. The Danish drugmaker announced to spend more than 16 billion Danish kroner (€2.1 billion euros) starting in 2023 to expand its production site in Chartres, France, adding aseptic production and finished production processes and an extension of the current Quality Control Laboratory.
Ineos Styrolution, a styrenics producer, has opened a new world-scale ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) facility located in Ningbo, China, together with its joint venture partner Sinopec. The facility has an annual nameplate capacity of 600,000 tons.
Orion opens its first greenfield project – a carbon black plant in eastern China that will supply fast-growing demand in Asia.
AGC Wakasa Chemicals, part of Japanese group AGC, has completed a new large-scale production line at its Kaminaka Plant in Fukui prefecture, Japan, as it expects demand for agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals to grow steadily against a backdrop of population growth and improvement of living standards.
German chemicals and ingredients distributor Brenntag has opened its new facility in Maurice, Louisiana, USA. Strategically positioned along the US Gulf Coast, the new site will be the primary operations hub for Coastal Chemical, a subsidiary of Brenntag, in addition to serving other areas in the region, the company said.
AkzoNobel is investing €32 million in a new plant at its Vilafranca site in Spain, which will produce bisphenol-free coatings for the metal packaging industry in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). AkzoNobel expects facility to be operational by mid-2025 and to create around 40 jobs.
OCI Global, the world’s third largest nitrogen fertilizer and ammonia producer, is supplying Röhm, a leading manufacturer of methacrylates, with bio-ammonia for the production of methyl methacrylate (MMA), an important precursor for Plexiglas.
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies unveiled its new $2 billion large-scale cell culture manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US.
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk plans to invest more than 42 billion Danish kroner (about €5.6 billion) starting in 2023 to expand existing manufacturing facilities at the company’s Kalundborg, Denmark, site to meet future market demands.
Olon, an Italian CDMO and API producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), plans to invest €10 million in a multi-year expansion of its production site in Mahad, India.
Serbian agrochemicals producer Elixir Group and German minerals producer K+S have signed a cooperation agreement for the production and distribution of crystalline water-soluble fertilizer mono-ammonium phosphate (MAP).
Aragen, an India, Hyderabad-headquartered contract research development and manufacturing organization (CRDMO) for small molecules and biologics, plans to set up a new biologics manufacturing facility in Bangalore, India.
Carbios announces that it has been granted the building permit and operating authorization for the world’s first polyethylene terephthalate (PET) biorecycling plant, allowing construction to start.
Brazilian chemical group Unipar Carbocloro will modernize its chlor-alkali plant in Cubatão, Brazil, with electrolyzer technology from Dortmund, Germany-headquartered Thyssenkrupp Nucera. The upgrade is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025. According to Thyssenkrupp, Unipar will invest more than 1 billion reais (about €190 million) in the modernization.
LyondellBasell acquired its 50% share from De Paauw Sustainable Resources (DPSR) CEO Roy de Paauw and ING Corporate Investments. DPSR is a plastics waste recycling company based out of the Netherlands.
In Canada, Belgian materials technology and recycling group Umicore is proceeding with the construction of a 35 GWh equivalent battery materials production plant in Loyalist, Ontario, to cater to the North American electric vehicle (EV) battery market. Located at about 25 km from Kingston, the plant in Loyalist will be at the heart of Canada’s automotive technology cluster.
Farmabios, a company of the Axplora group founded in 2022, has received the cGMP approval from AIFA (national public body regulating medicines for human use in Italy) for the first line of its new production unit at Gropello Cairoli, Italy, expanding its large scale manufacturing capabilities for high potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPIs) and steroids.
Bayer has opened a new cell therapy production plant in Berkeley, California, USA, for the production of of BlueRock Therapeutics’ bemdaneprocel (BRT-DA01), an investigational cell therapy currently in evaluation for treating Parkinson’s disease. BlueRock Therapeutics is a clinical-stage cell therapy company and a wholly owned, independently managed subsidiary of Bayer.
Malaysia’s leading integrated chemicals producer Petronas Chemicals Group Berhad (PCG), part of Petronas group, has reached the final investment decision (FID) to construct an advanced chemical recycling plant with a capacity of 33 kt/a. The plant, to be built in Pengerang, Johor, is the largest of its kind in Asia, said Petronas, and is expected to be operational in the first half of 2026.
Swiss contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Lonza is extending a long-term collaboration with an unnamed major global biopharmaceutical partner. Under the agreement, the current dedicated bioconjugation capacity will be increased fourfold by adding two new bioconjugation suites for the commercial supply of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) at Lonza's site in Visp, Switzerland.
DuPont officially opened its new adhesives production facility in Zhangjiagang (ZJG), eastern China, on Wednesday. The new facility will produce adhesives to serve customers in the transportation industry, primarily in lightweighting and fast-growing vehicle electrification applications, the company said.
Arkema plans a two-and-a-half-fold increase of its organic peroxide production capacities at the Changshu site in China. This investment of around €50 million, the company said, will enable it to support its Asian customers in fast-growing markets, particularly in renewable energies.
Wacker Chemie started the construction of several new production lines to expand its specialty silicone manufacturing capacities at the Zhangjiagang site in Jiangsu Province, China. At the site, which is one of Wacker’s largest fully integrated production sites, the globally operating chemical group will produce functional silicone fluids, silicone emulsions and silicone elastomer gels. Investments of some €150 million are planned for the expansion project, Wacker said.
Portugal's oil company Galp has taken the final investment decision on two large scale projects to reduce the carbon footprint of the Sines refinery and of its products.
Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma plans to build an aseptic drug products facility in County Kerry, Ireland, creating an estimated 350 engineering, science, technology and other jobs. Construction is expected to begin next year and be completed in 2028. Astellas expects the investment costs to amount to €330 million.
Dow has started operations of its new MDI distillation and prepolymers facility at its US manufacturing site in Freeport, Texas.
US multinational energy company ExxonMobil has started up two new chemical production units at its Baytown, Texas, manufacturing facility. The $2 billion expansion is part of the company’s long-term growth plans for its US Gulf Coast refining and chemical facilities.
