Datwyler announced that it is further expanding production capacities for the Healthcare and Food & Beverage businesses as well as logistics capacities of the online distributor Reichelt. The company said this is driven by encouraging order intake and customer demands. In 2021, the company expects to invest a total of CHF 120 million to CHF 130 million. Datwyler said it will invest at least CHF 80 million between 2020 and 2022 in its Swiss plant. With a new competence centre for surface technology, the company will strengthen its position for multi-component parts, which play an important role in systems for electric vehicles.

The long-standing CEO of the Boge Rubber & Plastics Group, Dr. Torsten Bremer, will hand over his position to his successor Torsten Gehrmann as of 1 July 2021. As a member of the management board of CRRC New Material Technologies GmbH, the globally responsible umbrella company of the Boge Rubber & Plastics Group based in Damme, Torsten Gehrmann has been jointly responsible for the Boge Rubber & Plastics Group since 1 December 2020. Dr. Torsten Bremer is moving to the Supervisory Board of CRRC New Material Technologies GmbH, which is currently being constituted.

KraussMaffei has appointed Jörg Bremer as new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the KraussMaffei Group and the Shanghai-listed KraussMaffei Company Limited (KMCL), effective 1 July 2021. Jörg Bremer will also become a member of the KraussMaffei Group Management Board. He succeeds Dr. Harald Nippel, who has the company effective 31 May 2021 at his own request, after six years of successful cooperation.

DSM is launching a new portfolio of engineering materials for medical devices. The new portfolio of medical grades was developed to address growing customer demand for advanced material solutions. It is intended to build upon and complement the company’s biomedical business.

Songwon Industrial Co., Ltd., announced the establishment of its new business entity in China, Songwon International-Qingdao Co., Ltd. The new organization will ensure that the South-Korean company remains well-positioned to continue providing customers in this important strategic region with high quality products and service.

SI Group has announced plans to invest more than USD 50 million across three manufacturing sites in North America to install globally competitive main antioxidant capacity. The company said that this investment demonstrates its commitment to the expanding U.S. chemical market, with a focus on supplying strategically located, critical raw materials to key partners in the region. With SI Group’s current extensive antioxidant manufacturing footprint in the U.S. and backward integration, this planned expansion will increase its security of supply by offering a fully integrated portfolio of phenolic antioxidants in the U.S. These additives are broadly used in growth segments such as food packaging, automotive, construction, adhesives, and other applications.

Wickert Maschinenbau has developed an extremely compact, setup-free multifunctional gripper for the handling of multilayer-stacked or chaotically deposited components with layer separation.

Chem-Trend, a specialist in the field of release agents, purging compounds and other specialised process chemicals, has founded a subsidiary in the Czech Republic on 1 April 2021: Chem-Trend CZ s.r.o., also opening an office in Prague.

Trinseo has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its synthetic rubber business based in Schkopau, Germany to Synthos S.A. and its affiliates (collectively Synthos) for an enterprise value of approximately USD 491 million, comprised of USD 449.4 million of cash and the assumption of approximately USD 41.6 million of pension liabilities. The expected net cash proceeds are approximately USD 400 million after transaction-related costs and taxes. The strategic deal was signed on 21 May 2021.

Seven Fraunhofer Institutes are pooling their expertise in the lighthouse project Waste4Future to develop new solutions for adjustments in the value chains, from the raw material base to material flows and process engineering right to the end of a product's life cycle. In particular, they want to increase energy and resource efficiency in the use of plastics and thus pave the way for a chemical industry that requires fewer fossil raw materials and produces fewer emissions.