The American Chemistry Council's Chemical Recycling Alliance, representing the rapidly growing advanced recycling and recovery sector for plastics in the USA, has changed its name to the Advanced Recycling Alliance for Plastics (ARAP) to reflect its growing membership and variety of members’ advanced recycling technologies. ARAP also announced three new members: GreenMantra Technologies, Chevron Phillips Chemical and Ravago Recycling Group on 30 April 2020.

On 28 April, Europur published an update on its previous status report of 7 April 2020 on the impact of the Corona crisis on European production of flexible PU foam: Governments that previously imposed restrictions on retail have already started or are planning to gradually lift restrictions between now and the second half of May. PU foam plants making plans to reopen. The production, however, will still take place at much reduced capacity due to ongoing low demand.

Covestro and Teknor Apex have announced their intention intend to cooperate closely on compounding TPU. The companies have signed a cooperation agreement to this effect.

Stepan Company, a manufacturer of specialty chemicals, has recently made donations of hand sanitizer and spray disinfectants to Chicagoland first responders on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis.

OCSiAl announced that as from April 2020, the company is able to commercialize up to 100 t/y of its Tuball single wall carbon nanotubes in Europe thanks to its upgraded dossier under the EU’s “Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals” (REACH) legislation, being additionally compliant with the new Annexes on nanoforms. OCSiAl said it will continue to expand markets for nanotubes and widen industrial applications by scaling-up its permitted volume in Australia and Canada in 2020, pending approval by the authorities.

Specialty chemicals company Lanxess completed the sale of its 40 % stake in chemical park operator Currenta to Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) on 30 April 2020.

According to KraussMaffei, owing to the current situation, there is a massive demand for personal protective equipment all over the world. The company’s extrusion division at the Hanover site in Germany has responded promptly to the shortage of PPE, venturing into the production of reusable facial visors. These visors are designed to complement the protective equipment of medical and healthcare professionals as well as of persons working in jobs with a high number of interpersonal contacts.

Borealis AG and Nova Chemicals Corporation announced on 15 April 2020 that Borealis has completed the acquisition of Nova Chemicals’ 50 % ownership interest in Novealis Holdings LLC.

Due to the continuing Corona pandemic Chinaplas 2020 had to be rescheduled again and has been postponed to 13-16 April 2021. The show venue will be changed from National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai to Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center in Shenzhen. The major global event for the plastics and rubber industry was supposed to open its doors from 21-25 April 2020 originally, and had at first been rescheduled to 3-6 August 2020 in back in January 2020.