Bitumen News

Related Commodity Chemicals Industry News

• June 2023: ExxonMobil invested approximately USD 264 million in new projects in Baton Rouge area facilities. Under these projects, the company included a new production unit to produce high-grade isopropyl alcohol for microchip manufacturing and a new resin production facility at ExxonMobil’s Port Allen lubricants plant. The project investment decision is expected to be finalized in the first half of 2024.

• The recent developments pertaining to the major players in the market will be covered in the complete study.

• March 2024: Yara collaborated with GHC SAOC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Acme Cleantech. Under this collaboration, ACME will provide YARA with ammonia with reduced CO2 emissions. This collaboration covers the supply of 100,000 tons per annum of renewable ammonia.
• December 2023: CF Industries Holdings Inc. completed the acquisition of Incitec Pivot Limited’s (IPL) Waggaman ammonia production facility for USD 1.675 billion. This acquisition added 880,000 tons of ammonia production annually to the company’s existing production capability.

• August 2023: Deepak Fertilisers And Petrochemicals Corporation Limited announced the brownfield expansion of nitric acid at Dahej in Gujarat, which is part of its strategic growth journey. Its Board of Directors approved the setting up of a Weak Nitric Acid (WNA) plant with a capacity of 300 KT PA and two Concentrated Nitric Acid (CNA) plants with a total capacity of 150 KT PA.
• July 2023: CF Fertilisers UK Limited, a subsidiary of CF Industries Holdings, Inc., announced a proposal to permanently close the ammonia plant at its Billingham Complex in order to secure the long-term sustainability of its business in the United Kingdom and more efficiently serve its customers in the country. The Company intends to continue to produce ammonium nitrate (AN) fertilizer and nitric acid at the Billingham site using imported ammonia, as it has for the last ten months following its decision to temporarily idle the plant in August 2022.
• December 2022: According to the most recent Securities & Exchange Commission filing, Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its position in CF Industries Holdings, Inc. by 99.9% during the third quarter. After acquiring an additional 11,176 shares during the quarter, the business now owned 22,368 shares of the basic materials company's stock.
• June 2022: CF Fertilisers UK Limited announced plans to restructure its operations in the United Kingdom. CF Fertilisers UK intends to focus its production operations in the United Kingdom entirely at the Billingham manufacturing facility in Teesside. Billingham has a sizable volume of ammonia and nitric acid industrial contracts that pass on natural gas costs to consumers, laying the groundwork for lucrative operations.

• January 2024: Aarti Industries Limited (AIL) has revealed a nine-year extended supply agreement with a global company specializing in pesticide products and solutions, presenting Aarti Industries with a revenue opportunity of approximately INR 300 crore (USD 361 million) over the duration and reinforcing its sulfuric acid portfolio
• May 2022: WeylChem International GmbH completed the acquisition and integration of INEOS Sulfur Chemicals Spain SLU, the leading Spanish sulfur chemicals arm of INEOS enterprises. The acquired business comprises a state-of-the-art facility with an annual capacity of 350,000 tons for producing sulfuric acid in Bilbao. The newly integrated sulfur business now operates under 'WeylChem Bilbao.'

• January 2024: BASF SE announced that either with immediate effect or as contract terms allow, it will increase prices for its Lupranate MDI basic products by USD 200 per metric ton in ASEAN and South Asia due to higher raw material prices and continued pressure in the cost of energy and regulatory efforts.
• October 2023: BASF SE announced that its Yeosu site in Korea had successfully produced the first biomass-balanced (BMB) methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI).
• September 2023: Dow announced the opening of a new MDI distillation and prepolymers facility at its world-scale manufacturing site in Freeport, Texas, United States, to replace the company's North American capacity in La Porte, Texas, and supply an additional 30% of product to Dow's customers.
• January 2023: BASF SE broke ground on the third (final) phase of the methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) expansion project at its Verbund site in Geismar, Louisiana, to increase production capacity to approximately 600,000 metric tons per year by the middle of the decade in order to support the growth of its North American MDI customers.
• July 2022: BASF invested USD 780 million in expanding the MDI plant at its Verbund site in Geismar, Louisiana, increasing its production capacity to 600,000 metric tons per year by the middle of the decade.

• January 2024: Enerkem announced that it will be retiring its Enerkem Alberta Biofuels (EAB) plant in Edmonton. The facility achieved its main objective of completing the commercial scale-up of Enerkem’s industry-leading technology with more than 15,000 hours of operation producing ethanol and methanol.
• January 2024: Fairway Methanol is a 50-50 joint venture between Mitsui & Co. and Celanese Corporation that began the production of methanol by using carbon dioxide emitted from plants surrounding the venture’s facility.
• January 2024: BASF SE and Envision Energy announced they would jointly develop technology to convert green hydrogen and CO2 into sustainable methanol. Envision Energy will develop its own process using BASF SE's catalyst technology and will then license it to its customers so that they can build larger, sustainable methanol or e-methanol plants.
• July 2023: A joint venture between Enerkem and Dimeta announced that it would initiate feasibility studies for the development of two large-scale projects that would convert waste into renewable and recycled carbon dimethyl ether (DME).
• November 2022: Petronas moved forward with the construction of a new methanol facility, which is slated to add 1.75 million tons of production capacity to the company's already operational 2.4 million tons of methanol production capacity. The project, which was set to be completed in March 2023, is located in Bintulu Sarawak, Malaysia.
• February 2022: Linde announced the expansion of its existing agreement with Celanese Corporation to supply carbon dioxide and hydrogen to the Celanese manufacturing facility in Clear Lake, Texas, to produce methanol. This agreement would help the company reduce its carbon footprint during its operation, contributing to the preservation of the environment and helping the company strengthen its business portfolio.

• February 2023: The Andersons Inc. announced the launch of a new line of granular micronutrients branded MicroMark DG that offers dispersing granule (DG) technology for engineered plant nutrient products, resulting in homogenous spherical granules for easier blending, spreading, and most importantly, increased efficacy.

• December 2023: Evonik Industries AG acquired Thai Peroxide Co. Ltd, a Thai-based manufacturer of peroxide products. The acquisition expanded the company's production capacity for producing different peroxide products, including hydrogen peroxide.
• October 2023: Dow and Evonik started the operation of a new pilot plant to produce hydrogen peroxide to propylene glycol (HPPG) at Evonik’s site in Hanau, Germany.
• September 2023: Shinsol Advanced Chemicals, a collaboration between Solvay and Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corporation, started operation for a new production plant in Tainan, Taiwan. The plant will produce electronic-grade hydrogen peroxide with a production capacity of 35,000 tons per annum.

• October 2023: Suncor Energy announced that it will acquire the Canadian operations of TotalEnergies for USD 1.468 billion. The acquisition is intended to add 61,000 barrels per day of net bitumen production capacity and 675 million barrels of proved and probable reserves to the company's existing oil sands portfolio.
• November 2022: NYNAS AB introduced Nypol RE, a new polymer-modified bitumen with some biogenic materials that increase its service life. It has a low environmental effect compared to other bitumen products.