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Petrochemicals

US producer Axiall rejects unsolicited takeover bid by Westlake Chemical

The Axiall board of directors, with the assistance of its financial and legal advisors, reviewed, considered and unanimously rejected the proposal within the timeframe requested by Westlake.

Air Products launches new ASU project at Chinese coal-to-chemicals plant

The project, capable of producing 12,000 tpd of oxygen and significant tonnage volumes of nitrogen and compressed dry air for the customer's coal chemical plant, represents one of the largest single on-site ASU orders ever committed to an industrial gas company.

BASF warns of lower-than-expected earnings

Low oil prices, normally a boon to chemical companies, hurt BASF's oil and gas business Wintershall, which accounted for 20% of its 2014 sales.

Dow’s Univation, Linde agree to collaborate on cracker, PE integration

Under the agreement, Univation and Linde will work toward delivering streamlined technology, capital expense and operational expense reduction opportunities and improved quality in early-stage design to ethylene cracker and polyethylene projects.

US chemical index shows signs of slowdown: ACC

Accounting for adjustments, the CAB remains up 1.6% over this time last year, a marked deceleration of activity from one year ago when the barometer logged a 3.2% year-over-year gain from 2014.

DuPont doubles down on cost cuts ahead of merger with Dow Chemical

HP Editorial Staff: HP News Services

DuPont says it is now targeting cost cuts of $730 million in 2016, with annual savings adding up to $1 billion. Those new projections are higher than figures stated in December.

Praxair starts new ASU for Chinese chemical plant

Praxair’s industrial gases from the air separation plant will be used in the coal gasification process for the production of methanol and downstream chemicals.

Brazil’s Petrobras nears sale involving chemicals producer Braskem

State-run Petrobras has received interest from major international chemical companies for its 36% stake in Braskem's total capital, according to the Reuters report.

M&G Chemicals to expand Corpus PTA, PET plant

In a statement, M&G Chemicals announced an increase in planned PET capacity from 1 MMtpy to at least 1.1 MMtpy, and in PTA capacity from 1.2 MMtpy to 1.3 million MMtpy.

Clariant, CB&I win design work for huge Chinese dehydrogenation unit

The world's largest single-train dehydrogenation unit will process feedstock containing 300,000 tpy of propane and 600,000 tpy of isobutane to jointly produce propylene and isobutylene.