Eni's Versalis plans to increase production capacity for acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) at its Mantua, Italy, facility, according to several industry reports. The project will boost ABS capacity at its existing unit by 30,000 t/y. The engineering phase has already begun, and production is scheduled to start in 2020.

PolyMirae and SK Advanced recently formed a joint venture to build a new polypropylene (PP) facility in Ulsan, South Korea.

At Fakuma 2018, Huntsman and its distribution partner Chemie Plast are showcasing a number of recently developed thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers, originally created for consumer and wire & cable applications, but suitable for use across a variety of industrial injection moulding and extrusion tasks.

Gelest, Inc. has introduced ExSil 50, a softer grade of an ultra-high elongation material that has been formulated to meet the requirements of soft-tissue implants or extracorporeal device applications.

On 3 July 2018, Reinhard Danzer, who has been in the commercial management of LWB Steinl since 2007, was appointed co-managing director of LWB Steinl GmbH & Co. KG and STG Stanztechnik GmbH by managing partner Peter Steinl. The Steinl Group expects to gain even more presence and stability with this dual leadership. In addition, Reinhard Danzer will remain CFO and continue to be responsible for the commercial area of the group. In his new position, the new co-managing director was available for an interview. Excerpts from the interview are given below.

According to the Luxembourg-based company OCSiAl, testing of the ecotoxicity potential of Tuball single wall carbon nanotubes, carried out according to the relevant OECD guideline, has shown no toxic effects on algae, in contrast to a set of recent results on similar tests with multi wall carbon nanotubes. Among plausible reasons for this is the unique physical nature, particularly the high flexibility, of single wall carbon nanotubes compared with most other types of carbon nanomaterials, said the company.

Effective from 1 October 2018, the Wittmann Group has merged its companies Wittmann Battenfeld GmbH & Co. KG in Meinerzhagen and Wittmann Robot Systeme GmbH in Nuremberg, Germany, into a single company.

The speciality chemicals distributor Safic-Alcan has signed an extended exclusive agreement with Arlanxeo for the distribution of Keltan EPDM in France, effective from 1 January 2019.

Cabot Corporation announced that it has acquired NSCC Carbon (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. from Nippon Steel Carbon Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Nippon Steel Chemical & Material Co., Ltd. The carbon black manufacturing facility in Pizhou, Jiangsu Province, China, was originally commissioned in 2015.

LyondellBasell on 10 October 2018 announced that a joint venture between PolyMirae Company Ltd (PMC) and SK Advanced (SKA) has selected LyondellBasell’s world leading polypropylene fifth generation Spheripol technology for a 400,000 t/y unit to be constructed in Ulsan, South Korea.