Petronas and Evonik Industries signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to jointly embark on the development of production facilities of specialty chemicals within Petronas’ Refinery & Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) project in Pengerang, Johor/Malaysia.

Specialty chemicals company Lanxess has increased its dichlorobenzene capacity by more than 15 %. It has done so by installing an additional crystallizer at the Leverkusen site, thereby enabling it to produce more high-purity paradichlorobenzene for the global market. Some € 3 million has been invested in the capacity expansion for this intermediate for the manufacture of high-performance plastics.

The Bayer Group plans to expand its business in Japan – despite the difficult conditions following the earthquake and tsunami disaster – and continue to grow sales in the coming years.

Lanxess is strengthening its commitment to Brazil with three major new investments totaling roughly € 30 million, which will create more than 100 jobs. The investments will support the growing trend toward green mobility in the Latin American country. Lanxess’ high-tech materials will offer innovative solutions to the growing local automotive market.

Germany-based Evonik Industries will build a new production plant for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in Jilin Province in northeastern China. The Group invests more than one hundred million Euro.

BASF has increased its global annual capacity for the production of the chemical intermediate PolyTHF (chemical name: polytetra­methylene ether glycol – PTMEG) from 185,000 metric tons to 250,000 metric tons. The company has continuously developed and expanded its production processes.

Technology company The Linde Group has been awarded a long-term contract to supply Vietnamese steel company POSCO SS-Vina (PSSV) with industrial gases. The deal will see Linde construct the country's largest air separation unit at the Phu My industrial park in Ba Ria (Vung Tau province). The Group will be investing a total of around EUR 40 million in the project.

BASF has opened its first production plant for dispersions in South Africa located at Umbogintwini Industrial Complex in Durban. With this new production facility BASF will serve its customers in the fast growing South African and Sub-Saharan African coatings and construction industry with acrylic dispersions based on state-of-the-art technologies.

At the beginning of June Jung Process Systems supplied 30 Hyghspin twin screw pumps to a customer in the United States. This order signifies the largest individual order since the foundation of the company three years ago.

Sartorius officially opened a new building for the manufacture of filters and single-use bags for biopharmaceutical applications at its Yauco, Puerto Rico site. The global pharma supplier and provider of laboratory equipment invested around €16 million into the expansion of its production capacity