Russian investors have started construction of a € 10.5 billion refinery in the Angolan province of Namibe, the Portugues Newspaper Diário de Notícias reports.

A groundbreaking ceremony has taken place at Akzo Nobel’s North American Wood Coatings facility in High Point, North Carolina. The event officially started a $ 55.4 million investment, which is to transform the site’s manufacturing capability.

KBR has been awarded a contract for Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) technology by Shenghong Refining Petrochemical (Lian Yun Gang), China. This is the first commercial VAM technology license secured under an alliance agreement between KBR and Showa Denko to commercialize their VAM technology.

Ceresana publishes an extensive report about the global market for HDPE for the fifth time already. The current market study expects an increase of HDPE demand by an average of 2,9 % per year worldwide, by 2026.

Holiferm has secured funding from Sasol Chemicals to carry out R&D for sustainable solutions in primary surfactants. Under the terms of the agreement, Sasol Chemicals will also buy majority of the sophorolipids produced at Holiferm’s new manufacturing plant in the UK with an aim to assist in the commercialization of sophorolipids.

The new lines have been constructed at Sumitomo Chemical’s Chiba Works location with an aim to meet the growing demands of companies licensing its polypropylene and propylene oxide manufacturing technology.

Ingersoll Rand has launched a full range of Peristaltic Hose pumps in India. The new product line expands Ingersoll Rand’s existing Arotm positive displacement pump portfolio that includes air-operated diaphragm and piston pumps enabling high levels of reliability, efficiency and productivity.

With the budget round the corner, we asked industry veterans their expectations from it. Here are a few recommendations, suggestions that they would like to see materialize in this year’s budget…

Uhde Inventa-Fischer has been awarded a contract by Micro Polypet, an Indian joint venture comprising the chemical companies RLG Group and Action Petrochem, to build a plant for the production of high-quality PET for bottling and packaging applications. The plant, which will be located in Panipat, India, will have a production capacity of 216,000 tonnes per year.

The acquisition move is expected to further strengthen cooperation between Chemchina and the Sinochem Group. Also, the 100 % shares of Syngenta and 74.02 % shares of Adama held by Chemchina is expected to be transferred to the Syngenta Group.