Formosa Plastics Plans Initial Public Offering Formosa Plastics Group announced its plans to merge four US units and sell shares in the combined entity in an Initial Public Offering. The IPO will combine PVC/polyolefins maker Formosa Plastics Corp. USA with plastic pipe producer J-M Manufacturing Co. Inc. and Nan Ya Plastics Corp. The company plans […]

Private equity firms Access Industries and The Chatterjee Group to acquire Basell The long protracted and much-speculated sale of Basell was finalized. The investment group led by New York-based The Chatterjee Group, along with the New York-based Access Industries acquired the assets and operations of Basell for approximately $5.7 billion US Dollars. It is expected […]

Polyolefin producers announce first-quarter earnings Dow Chemical Dow Chemical Company reported total sales of $11.7 billion for the first quarter of 2005. The sales were 25% higher compared to the first quarter of 2004. Net income climbed to $1.4 billion from $469 million in the first quarter of last year and earnings per share were […]

Qatar Petrochemical to Increase LDPE Production Qatar Petrochemical Company (QAPCO) plans to boost the production of low-density polyethylene and ethylene by initiating a major de-bottlenecking. Currently, QAPCO is the largest producer of low-density Polyethylene (LDPE) in the Middle East with an annual capacity of 360,000MT. The company is also stepping up its annual ethylene production […]

Chemical Market Resources Inc. moves to a new home Chemical Market Resources Inc., moved to a new home on March 25, 2005. The premium market research firm and the publisher of this news analysis moved its offices from Nasa Parkway to Blossom Street. The new address and phone number for Chemical Market Resources Inc. are […]

Basell to acquire Repsol YPF’s position in Argentine PP joint venture Petroken Basell announced its plans to assume ownership of the 50% portion of Argentina’s Petroken Petroquimica Ensenada that is currently held by its partner in the joint venture, Repsol YPF. Petroken operates a 180 KT per year polypropylene plant, a 20 KT per year […]

Tasnee Petrochemicals and Basell to build an integrated polyethylene complex in Saudi Arabia National Petrochemical Industrialization Company (also known as Tasnee Petrochemicals) and Basell have signed an agreement with respect to building a new integrated polyethylene complex at Al-Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia. The complex will consist of a gas cracker and two 400 […]

Sumitomo Chemical to convert LLDPE plant to polypropylene plant in Singapore The Polyolefin Company (Singapore) Ltd. (“TPC”), a subsidiary of Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., announced its plans to convert its linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant to polypropylene production. The new plant’s production capacity will be 200,000 metric tons/year. Construction is scheduled to be completed in […]

Chemicals & polyolefins producers and other companies report positive fourth-quarter earnings Dow Chemical Dow Chemical announced its fourth-quarter earnings. The company had a total sales for the fourth quarter of 2004 of $10.9 billion, up 31% compared to 4Q 2003. Overall 2004 sales increased to $40.2 billion, 23% higher than in 2003 and a new […]

Huntsman selects ExxonMobil’s tubular LDPE technology for its UK plant ExxonMobil Chemical announced the signing of an agreement with Huntsman Petrochemical to license ExxonMobil’s tubular process technology for Huntsman’s new low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plant. The 400 KT per year plant, to be built in Teesside, England, will be the world’s largest LDPE reactor. Work is […]

Dow Chemical to exercise option related to DuPont Dow Elastomers joint venture DuPont and The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) announced that Dow has elected to exercise its option to acquire certain assets relating to ethylene and chlorinated elastomers, including assets of the Engage®, Nordel®, and Tyrin® businesses, from DuPont Dow Elastomers LLC (DDE), a 50/50 […]

Nizhnekamskneftekhim selects Spherilene process for new LDPE/HDPE plant Nizhnekamskneftekhim announced the selection of Basell’s Spherilene® polyethylene technology for a new 230 KT per year plant to produce linear low-density and high-density polyethylene. The plant is to be built in Nizhnekamsk, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, with a start-up planned for 2007. According to Basell, the new […]