Merck opened packaging centre in Darmstadt

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Merck recently celebrated the opening of its new packaging center at the science and technology company’s headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, as per Businessfacilities.

"Darmstadt is our prime hub for the manufacturing of medicines and it plays a key role in our plans for future growth,” said Stefan Oschmann, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck. “This latest investment in a new state-of-the-art packaging center reflects our commitment to our headquarters and is a compelling example of how we use the latest technological advances to always better serve our patients."

The new 161,458-square-foot facility will be dedicated to the packaging and shipping of Merck’s current portfolio of pharma medicines in more than 90 countries and help meet increasing patient needs for flagship medicines Glucophage®, Concor and Euthyrox in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and thyroid disorders respectively. It will also provide capacity for potential future pharma products currently in clinical development such as evobrutinib in the area of neurology-immunology or tepotinib in the area of oncology.

With its eight fully automated packaging lines and robotized logistics, the new packaging center will have the capacity to process more than 210 million boxes of medicines every year. It is designed to incorporate a broad range of new technologies such as the tracking and tracing of medicines to prevent counterfeit, or smart packaging to ensure more flexibility to adapt the production of medicines to patient demand. The new packaging center is also designed to comply with the highest international standards in terms of quality, environment, health and safety.

The new pharma packaging center represents an investment of USD73 million over the 2015-2018 period and is part of a wider USD1 billion investment up to 2020 transforming the Darmstadt site into contemporary global headquarters.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shanghai Golden Phillips Petrochemical Co has shut a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant for a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has halted operations at its plant over the weekend. The plant is likely to be brought on-stream in mid-November 2018.

Located in Shanghai, China, the HDPE plant has a production capacity of 135,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, the company shut down its HDPE plant in Shanghai from end-May to 13 June, 2017, owing to a lack of feedstock availability.

Besides, it was taken off-stream for a turnaround from 14 August to 12 September, 2018.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group's key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ferrero USA, the global confectionery company known for brands such as Ferrero Rocher, Nutella, Tic Tac and Kinder Joy, will invest USD9 million to expand its industrial facility in Franklin Township, NJ., as per Businessfacilities.

The expansion project will add nearly 100 local jobs and bring the facility to a total of 67,000 square feet of packaging and warehousing space.

"We are proud to do business in Franklin Township, and we’re thrilled to be expanding our existing operations here," said Paul Chibe, Ferrero North America president and CEO. “This renovation demonstrates the ongoing commitment Ferrero has to doing business in the state of New Jersey, and we’re confident this will continue to be a successful partnership for us all."

Since 2016, Ferrero has invested USD12 million into the Somerset County facility to ensure the successful launch of Kinder Joy, an egg-shaped package that holds a sweet treat on one side and a surprise toy on the other, which was previously available outside of North America. Since its U.S. debut in November 2017, Kinder Joy surpassed all Ferrero and industry targets for a new product, with more than 90 million eggs sold. The success of Kinder Joy in the U.S. led to this latest investment.

Last year, Ferrero USA employed up to 500 seasonal employees through local agencies. With the investments, the total number of employees is estimated to grow up to 600 seasonal employees. The location currently employs 35 salaried employees with an additional four salaried employees expected in 2019.

Founded as a family business in Alba, Italy in 1946, Ferrero is the third-largest confectionery company in the world, with distribution in over 170 countries, and a workforce of more than 30,000 people across 55 countries. Ferrero has committed to sourcing only 100% certified as sustainable cocoa by 2020.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petrofac, the international oil and gas services provider, leading a consortium with Saipem S.p.A. (Saipem) and Samsung Engineering Co Ltd (Samsung), has received an award notification for Thai Oil Public Company Limited’s (Thai Oil) Clean Fuels Project on the East coast of Thailand, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Samsung Engineering’s share for this project is around USD1.1 billion USD. The project objective is to produce higher quality transportation fuel, lower feedstock cost and also to expand the capacity of the largest refinery project in Sriracha, Thailand.

The project will increase daily crude throughput from 275,000 barrels to 400,000 barrels. Major new process units include Crude Distillation Unit (CDU), Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU), Hydrocracker Unit (HCU) as well as a Residue Hydrocracker Unit (RHCU). Further, the scope of work includes improvements and expansion on the existing facility and provision of the utilities and supportive facilities to this project. The project is expected to be completed over a period of approximately four years.

With this order, Samsung Engineering has expanded its business relationship with Thai Oil and strengthened the base of the Thai market. Samsung Engineering has been actively engaging and providing their services to Thailand since entering the market in 1991. Thai Oil’s CFP will be the 24th project Samsung Engineering will deliver to Thailand.

Sung An Choi, President and CEO of Samsung Engineering said: "We are proud and honored to have received this contract and further are excited to provide clean fuel to Thai Oil. With our experience and successfully delivery of numerous projects to Thailand for more than 20 years, we are looking forward to provide a safe and proficient project with our partners for Thai Oil."

Sunder Kalyanam, Group Managing Director for Petrofac’s Engineering & Construction Growth business said: "We are delighted to have secured this contract and to be leading the consortium on the delivery of an important project that will enhance the country’s long-term energy stability and economic development, and boost its output of high-quality clean fuels. We look forward to the safe and efficient delivery of this project for Thai Oil."

As MRC informed earlier, in October 2018, McDermott International, Inc. was awarded a sizeable technology contract for Map Ta Phut Olefins Co., Ltd.'s (MOC) petrochemical plant in Rayong Province, Thailand. MOC is a joint venture company of SCG Chemicals Company Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of SCG, and the Dow Chemical Company. McDermott will provide the basic engineering and license of Lummus' olefins technology and will design and supply the proprietary SRT III heater for the MOC Debottleneck Project, a parallel gas cracker added to increase plant capacity which will utilize Lummus' side cracker technology, including a low pressure chilling train and enhanced binary refrigeration.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crystal Group, Inc. recently unveiled its new corporate headquarters in Hiawatha, IA, as per Businessfacilities.

The 111,500-square-foot, state-of-the-art building is adjacent to the company’s other two buildings on Crystal Group’s campus, which now totals 160,000 square feet of manufacturing and administration operations. The designer and manufacturer of rugged computer and electronic hardware’s production capacity will increase by more than fifty percent due to the expansion.

Crystal Group President Scott Kongable cuts the ribbon for the company’s new headquarters in Hiawatha, IA.
Military and industrial customers’ rapidly increasing demand for Crystal Group rugged computers spurred the expansion and gave cause to plan for a phase two addition to the building within the next five years. The building was designed to accommodate a 30,000-square-foot addition. Over 50 new jobs were also created to support customer demand. Crystal Group currently employs more than 220 people, the new headquarters’ current capacity is 285 workers.

"This marks a significant milestone in the 27-year history of our employee-owned company," said Crystal Group president, Scott Kongable. “Our success is based on our employees’ relentless commitment to serve our customers. Some of the best talent out there is right here in Hiawatha working at Crystal Group to deliver the highest quality rugged computer solutions for our military and industrial customers in over thirty-five countries. Our new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will fuel greater innovation and transform the level of customer service we deliver."

All three of Crystal Group’s buildings and network are NIST compliant (National Institute of Standards and Technology) offering the highest level of security. The new facility offers added in-house engineering services and compliance testing technologies to speed the production process and better serve customer requirements.
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