In a move to better serve its custom- ers in North and Latin America, global chemical company Oxea continues with the detailed engineering for
a Propanol unit at its world-scale production plant at Bay City, TX. The unit
is scheduled to come on stream in late
2017. Key elements of the detailed engineering work will also be utilized for the
construction of Oxea’s future Asian Oxo
chemicals platform in Duqm, Oman.
Propanol is used to manufacture products
such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals,
printing inks, coatings and adhesives.
“Oxea is a leading merchant sup-
plier of Oxo products such as alcohols,
aldehydes, and acids. We continue to
significantly invest into our production
platforms, especially for Propanol, to
support the growth of our customers and
meet the rising demands of the markets,”
said Miguel Mantas, Member of Oxea’s
Executive Board and responsible for
Marketing and Sales. “
“The new facility for Propanol in
North America not only supports our
strategy of growing the business and en-
hancing the efficiency of our operations.
It also emphasizes our confidence in the
competitiveness of the US petrochemi-
cal industry and reinforces our commit-
ment to the North and Latin American
markets,” commented Dr. Martina Flöel,
spokesperson for the Oxea Executive
Board, who is also responsible for
Production and Technology.
Wacker Expands Mexico
Technical Center to Include
Dispersion Applications for
Coatings & Adhesives
Wacker has expanded the service portfo-
lio at its technical center in Mexico City,
Mexico. The local facility now comprises
state-of-the-art applications technology
and test equipment for polymer disper-
sions needed as binders for architectural
coatings and adhesives. The expansion
not only enables Wacker to help its local
customers develop new and tailor-made
products for the region. It also encour-
ages the exchange of know-how and pro-
motes internationally recognized quality
standards in Latin America.
The expansion has focused on vinyl
acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE) disper-
sions used as binders for low-odor indoor
paints, durable outdoor coatings and
sustainable water-borne adhesives. This
measure will help Wacker to further bol-
ster its position as a globally leading pro-
ducer and supplier of VAE dispersions.
“Latin America is a promising market
for Wacker. Demand is increasing steadily for our high-quality dispersions. Our
sales in the region have grown significantly over the recent years and we are
encouraged by the regions’ potential. This
new facility will help foster the development of our products and support the
needs of our local customers”, explained
John Fotheringham, vice president of
Dispersions at Wacker Polymers.
The technical center will now also
support customers in the paints, coatings and adhesives sectors to develop new
products and applications for the regional
markets with regard to locally available
raw materials, climatic and environmental conditions, and regional requirements.
The labs are equipped with cutting-edge
instrumentation meeting international
standards. Additionally, a new UV chamber has been installed to analyze fading
and weathering of polymer-modified exterior coatings.
Thomson Reuters Ranks
Arkema in the Top 100
Innovating Companies for
the Fifth Year
Thomson Reuters has ranked Arkema for
the fifth year in a row among the top 100
innovating companies and organizations
in the world, across all business activities. The Group features among the three
French companies selected for this award.
The fifth edition of this award ranks
France in third place among the countries
represented, with 10 companies and or-
ganizations rewarded.
This Top 100 Global Innovators ranking identifies the most innovation-active
companies and research structures.
Selection is based on four criteria: rate
of success of patent application, global
reach of patent portfolio, influence of a
patent calculated from the number of citations in trade publications, and volume
of patents.
Cabot Corp. Plans to Close
its Merak Carbon Black
Manufacturing Facility
Cabot Corporation announced that its
carbon black manufacturing facility in
Merak, Indonesia will close. It is anticipated that manufacturing operations will
cease by the end of January 2016.
“To be successful over the long term,
we must continue to focus on improving
profitability through cost savings and in-
creased operational efficiency while also
producing the highest quality products
that meet our customers’ needs,” said
Sean Keohane, president, Reinforcement
Materials Segment. “The decision to con-
solidate manufacturing across Asia Pacific
is a critical step in our plan to ensure that
we are operating as efficiently and effec-
tively as possible to become more com-
petitive in a challenging environment,
and to accelerate future growth.”
The decision, which will affect approx-
imately 50 local employees, was driven
by the Merak facility’s financial perfor-
mance over the past few years. Despite
efforts to be competitive, the facility has
suffered from low utilization rates. Asia
is quickly becoming one regional market
and this dynamic has created the need
for our facilities to be even more cost
competitive. As such, we will consolidate
production in Asia by ceasing produc-
tion at our Merak facility and using our
Cilegon, Indonesia as well as other Asian
and global carbon black production sites
Oxea Opens New Propanol Facility
in Bay City, Texas
