With the acquisition of Compass Chemical International from US private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners, Italmatch Group intends to consolidate its presence in the American market.

Evonik is investing a double-digit million dollar amount in the construction of a new multi-purpose facility at its Geesthacht location in Northern Germany, 30 km outside the city of Hamburg.

The company has plans to increase its linear mercaptans production capacitiesin order to meet the growing demands for polymers from the transportation and electronics markets.

Barrday and Arkema have created a joint venture to manufacture and market carbon fiber and specialty polymer tapes for the growing oil and gas industrial market.

With his appointment, the company plans to further support the fast-growing polymer industry in the Middle East. The firm also intends to promote the local production of customer-specific antioxidant blends in the country.

Market and raw material trends set the direction in the chemical industry. That is one of the reasons why the 2008/2009 crisis signaled the start of a paradigm shift in chemical plant engineering and construction. Traditional EPC suppliers (general contractors based in the Western industrialized nations) are facing increased competition from Asia. At the same time, the plant engineering teams at global chemical companies are intensifying their partnerships with EPCs and spreading the workload across the international engineering resource base.

The global demand for biodegradable plastics is predicted to be over a million tonne in 2022 and hence, the company has undertaken this move. Once complete, the facility is expected to produce a capacity of about 5,000 tonne per year.

Mitsui Chemicals and Prime Polymer announced the increase of their production of polypropylene at three of its global PP compound hubs in the United States, Mexico, and India.

A new project at Jacobs University is set to drastically simplify the application and implementation of biocatalytic processes in industrial practice.

Chemicals giant Bayer plans to get rid of the remaining material science and polymers business: The company wants to focus on life science solutions, bringing its subsidiary Bayer material Science on the stock market by 2016. Already in 2004, the company had divested large parts of its speciality chemicals and polymer business into the new formed Lanxess.