Plant Expansions

Swiss speciality chemical firm Clariant’s Healthcare Packaging business unit is now producing desiccant packets at its plant in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India. The addition expands the range of desiccant products immediately available to customers in the region and increases global capacity. The plant now manufactures both Continu-Strip continuous-roll desiccant packets…

UK’s independent providers of materials and product qualification testing, Element Materials Technology, has integrated into its company Admaterials Technologies, a Singapore-based business that provides testing to the construction sector, as well as chemical, environmental and mechanical testing and certification services. This represents the final stage of an extensive integration program…

Speciality chemicals firm Evonik Industries is extending its corporate venture capital activities in the US with an investment in New Jersey-based early-stage investor Tech Council Ventures II. The German firm says it is investing a single-digit million US-dollar amount. Tech Council Ventures finances young, innovative start-up companies and actively supports…

US firm ExxonMobil has started production on a new high-performance polyethylene (PE) line at its Beaumont, Texas, PE plant. The expansion increases plant production capacity by 65% or 650,000 tonnes/year, bringing site capacity to nearly 1.7 million tonnes/year. This expansion builds upon supply advantages created by ExxonMobil’s two new performance…

Japanese automotive parts supplier Toyoda Gosei Co.’s production subsidiary in Vietnam, Toyoda Gosei Haiphong has started operations at its new plant recently. The plant located in Thai Binh, near Hanoi, will produce airbag and steering wheels components. Spanning an area of 34,000 sq m, the plant is Toyoda’s second in…

AkzoNobel is to acquire French aerospace coatings manufacturer Mapaero, to strengthen its global position in aerospace coatings, notably in the structural and cabin coating sub-segments, and contribute directly towards delivering the company’s 2020 guidance. AkzoNobel to purchase Mapaero to strengthen its global aerospace coatings business Established in 1992 and specialising…

US-based Lubrizol Corporation has acquired Bavaria Medizin Technologie GmbH (BMT), a manufacturer of both intravascular (coronary, peripheral, and cranial) and nonvascular devices, including drug-coated balloons, from its current majority shareholder Custos Vermögensverwaltungs GmbH as well as from the minority shareholders. Lubrizol says this acquisition builds upon its expertise in precision…

Japan’s Toray Industries is to establish a new production facility for battery separator film (BSF) for lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) in Nyergesújfalu, Hungary. The new production facility will be located at Toray Industries Hungary Kft. (THU), which was established in 2018, and will increase the Toray Group’s total BSF production capacity…

Russia-based Rustark, located in Lipetsk, in the south of Moscow, has started construction of its EUR200 million production plant to produce starch products and biopolymers, using wheat as a feedstock. The new facility will be built in four stages over a period of 10-15 years, the company said. The first…

Automotive parts supplier Röchling Engineering Plastics SE & Co. KG has invested in the expansion of its location in Haren, Germany. It is investing EUR9 million in building a new building to house its R&D centre, which will be completed by 2020. The building will also have an exhibition area,…