Poland's chemical firm Grupa Azoty has asked the country's anti-trust regulator UOKiK to approve the construction of installations for polypropylene production by a group comprising Azoty and its one Polish and two South Korean partners, UOKiK said on Monday (30 December 2019).

Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council, expects chemical production in the European Union (EU) to have declined by 1 % in 2019 compared to 2018. For 2020, chemical production is expected to stay on the same level as 2019.

Uzbekistan has started up a new chemical complex at Navoiazot in the Navoi region of Uzbekistan, according to the press service of the Uzbek president. The project, earlier valued at around USD 500 million, has the capacity to produce 300,000 t/y of methanol, 100,000 t/y of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and 75,000 t/y of caustic soda. CAMC Engineering and HQC (Shanghai) Co. of China were contractors for the project.

Piotr Gąska has been appointed as the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) of CQLT SaarGummi Technologies S.à r.l. based in Remich, Luxembourg. Gąska has extensive international expertise in the automotive industry. Through his former position as Director European Region at SaarGummi Automotive in 2014 and 2015 Gąska already knows the company very well.

LyondellBasell and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) to form a 50-50 joint venture for building a new propylene oxide (PO) and styrene monomer (SM) plant in Zhenhai, Ningbo, China. The facility, which will be based on LyondellBasell's PO/SM technology, is expected to produce 300,000 t/y of PO and 600,000 t/y of SM to serve the domestic market. 

Foam Expo North America 2020, one of the world’s largest dedicated exhibitions and conferences for the technical foam industry, will take place from 24 – 26 March 2020 in halls A, B and C of the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, MI, USA. According to the organiser, Smarter Shows (Tarsus) Limited, the event is a meeting place for the manufacturers, suppliers and buyers of technical foam products and technologies, offering attendees access to innovative machinery and services from across the entire foam supply chain. Moving into its fourth year, the event provides a unique opportunity to network with OEMs and suppliers and keep up-to-date with the latest industry trends.

On 19 December 2019, PolyOne Corporation announced that it has entered into an agreement with Clariant to purchase its global colour and additive masterbatch business.  In addition, PolyOne has entered into an agreement with Clariant Chemicals India Ltd. to purchase its colour and additive masterbatch business. The combined net purchase price is USD 1.45 billion. The closing of both transactions is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals and is expected by by mid-2020.

South Korea said Wednesday (8 January 2020) it will spare no efforts to revitalize the country's petrochemical industry facing a prolonged slump amid growing protectionism and competition.

The General Directorate of Rubber announced a joint study on family-owned rubber plantations in three provinces to better understand how growers have responded to the sharp drop in rubber prices over the past nine years. The average cost of rubber has fallen from around USD 4,600 per ton in 2011 to about USD 1,350 per ton in early 2020, according to its report.

Safety for patient and user is an essential requirement for medical products, in-vitro diagnostics and pharmaceutical packaging. Subsequently, plastics grades used in medical have to fulfil particular requirements, i.e. constant properties, formulation lock or biocompatibility. Surprisingly, no standard has existed to define the requirements for medical grades so far. This gap has been filled recently by the new guideline VDI 2017 developed and launched by a work group of the German Engineer’s Society (VDI). This article addresses the development of the new guideline VDI 2017 “medical grade plastics” and presents the essential requirements to be covered by medical grade plastics (MGP).