Wacker to raise prices for dispersions, resins and dispersible powders from Europe

Effective July 1, 2022, or as customer contracts allow, the Wacker Group is to raise its prices for dispersions, resins and dispersible polymer powders sourced from its production sites in Europe, said the company.

Prices for these products will be increased by up to 10 percent. This measure has been necessitated by rising costs for raw materials and logistics. Surging costs will also result in an increase in existing surcharges for dispersible polymer powders. The price adjustments will enable the Wacker Polymers division to continue providing customers with high product quality, technological innovations, best-in-class customer service and technical support, along with supporting investment to secure the capability for future growth across focus markets.

As per MRC, Wacker Chemie AG is accelerating the expansion of its production capacities. Investment projects to this end are either in the planning stage or are nearing completion. Significant capacity expansions for liquid silicone rubber (LSR) will be available in the second half of this year, and will come into full effect in 2023. Increasing production volumes for high con¬sistency rubber (HCR) are also scheduled. With expansion measures at several other sites, Wacker will gradually in¬crease its capacities for HCR and LSR grades significantly in the next few years. Over EUR100 million have been earmarked for this capacity boost.

Wacker Polymers is a leading producer of state-of-the-art binders and polymeric additives based on polyvinyl acetate and vinyl acetate copolymers and terpolymers. These take the form of dispersible polymer powders, dispersions, solid resins, and solutions. They are used in construction chemicals, paints and surface coatings, adhesives, sealants, carpet applications and nonwovens, as well as in fiber composites and polymeric materials based on renewable resources.

Wacker Polymers operates production sites in Germany, China, South Korea and the USA. The business division also maintains a global sales organization and runs technical centers in all key regions.

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Air Liquide and Siemens Energy announce the creation of a joint venture dedicated to the series production of industrial scale renewable hydrogen electrolyzers in Europe, said the company.

With two of the global leading companies in their field combining their expertise, this Franco-German partnership will enable the emergence of a sustainable hydrogen economy in Europe and foster a European ecosystem for electrolysis and hydrogen technology. Production is expected to begin in the second half of 2023 and ramp-up to an annual production capacity of three gigawatts by 2025.

Air Liquide will take 25.1 percent, and Siemens Energy will hold 74.9 percent of the joint venture, which creation remains subject to approval of the competent authorities. This joint venture will be headquartered in Berlin. The joint venture multi-gigawatt factory that produces electrolysis modules (“stacks”) would be also located in the German capital, as announced earlier this year. This factory will supply stacks to both Groups for their respective broad range of customers and to serve the rapidly growing market. Based on proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis technology, these stacks will feature a high degree of efficiency and are ideally suited to harvest volatile renewable energy. In addition, Air Liquide and Siemens Energy have agreed to dedicate R&D capacities to the co-development of the next generation of electrolyzer technologies within the framework of the partnership.

The strategic partnership will benefit from a portfolio of hydrogen projects combining both Air Liquide and Siemens Energy’s pipelines, targeting large industrial-scale hydrogen projects in collaboration with customers. This will create a solid basis for the required rapid ramp-up of electrolysis capacities and thus is expected to make competitive renewable hydrogen available sooner. One of the first projects is the Air Liquide Normand’Hy electrolyzer project, with a capacity of 200 megawatts (MW) expected in the first phase, located in Normandy, France. The assembly of the electrolyzer systems for this project is planned to be made in France.

As per MRC, Air Products has appointed Sushila Mani as Managing Director of Prodair Air Products India. Announcing the news on 20th June, the industrial gas giant said Mani will lead its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) centres in Pune and Vadodara, India.
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AkzoNobel has repurchased 260,040 of its own common shares in the period from June 13, 2022, up to and including June 17, 2022, at an average price of EUR69.95 per share, said the company.

The consideration of the repurchase was EUR18.19 million. This is part of a repurchase program announced on February 9, 2022. AkzoNobel intends to repurchase common shares up to a value of €500 million. The total number of shares repurchased under this program to date is 2,647,901 ordinary shares for a total consideration of €207.69 million.

The share buyback is due to be completed by the first quarter of 2023. The company has engaged a third party to manage the program and perform transactions on its behalf. It is intended that the shares will be cancelled following repurchase.

This share buyback will be implemented within the limitations of the authority granted by the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on April 22, 2022. The share repurchase program will be conducted within the parameters prescribed by the Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014 and the safe harbor parameters prescribed by the Commission Delegated Regulation 2016/1052 for share buybacks.

As per MRC, AkzoNobel expects business in Russia to wind down in the next couple of months due to difficulties accessing raw materials and the increasing deterioration of supply chains. The firm, which operates four plants in the country, expects its Russian assets to go out of business within the next couple of months due to the impact of sanctions imposed on the country and intensifying supply chain disruption, as well as the ability of key customers to finance orders.
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SK Capital Partners, LP, a private investment firm focused on the specialty materials, specialty chemicals, and pharmaceuticals sectors, announced the hiring of Asim Bhatia as Director, Business Development, said the company.

Mr. Bhatia will be based in New York and brings nearly 25 years of strategic corporate development, M&A, investment banking, and corporate banking experience to SK Capital.

In this role, Mr. Bhatia will coordinate and lead the firm’s efforts to identify and develop new investment opportunities. Prior to joining SK Capital, Mr. Bhatia was a Senior Director of Corporate M&A at DuPont de Nemours, Inc., where he led both the acquisitions and divestitures of several businesses during his tenure. Prior to DuPont, Mr. Bhatia held similar roles at Honeywell and Eastman Chemical, and was previously an investment banker.

"We are delighted to welcome Asim to the SK Capital team. His experience managing M&A for several of the most respected corporates in our sectors is a highly valuable skill set. We believe a dedicated effort to developing and managing the large pipeline of opportunities across our industries of focus will serve to enhance our investment practice,” said Mario Toukan, Managing Director of SK Capital.

As per MRC, Neste, Covestro and South Korean petrochemical company SK geo centric are cooperating to enable the production of a major polyurethane raw material based on renewable raw materials via mass balance. The cooperation will see Neste provide SK geo centric with renewable Neste RE, an ISCC certified feedstock for polymers and chemicals made from 100% renewable raw materials such as waste and residue oil and fats. SK geo centric will process this feedstock into benzene at the company’s facilities in South Korea and supply it to Covestro to use as raw material for methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) at its site in Shanghai, China.

SK Capital is a private investment firm with a disciplined focus on the specialty materials, specialty chemicals, and pharmaceuticals sectors. The firm seeks to build strong and growing businesses that create substantial long-term economic value. SK Capital aims to utilize its industry, operating, and investment experience to identify opportunities to transform businesses into higher performing organizations with improved strategic positioning, growth, and profitability, as well as lower operating risk. SK Capital’s portfolio of businesses generates revenues of approximately $15 billion annually, employs more than 20,000 people globally, and operates 191 plants in 32 countries.
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Borealis is investing around EUR200 mln to upgrade and expand its XLPE and semicon assets at existing production locations in Europe, said the company.

This ambitious initiative will serve the W&C market by safeguarding the reliable supply of high-quality insulation and semiconductive materials in the long term, and particularly those required to support global offshore wind and interconnector projects.

Investment focus lies on production of XLPE compounds in Stenungsund, Sweden; and on semicon compounds in Antwerp, Belgium. The products and services originating at these new centres of manufacturing excellence are subject to stringent process and quality controls.

The Baystar joint venture with TotalEnergies is bringing the Borstar 3G technology to American PE markets. Construction commenced in 2020 on the 625,000 metric ton-per-year Borstar PE unit in Texas. Once the facility comes on stream in 2022, the increased production capacity will enable Borealis, as exclusive supplier of Baystar-produced PE to W&C customers, to better fulfil growing demand for fibre optic and power cable jacketing in North, Central, and South America.

An investment study to evaluate capacity expansion at the Borealis Compounds Inc. production facility in New Jersey is nearing completion. Once the project is deemed feasible, Borealis plans to invest a significant sum to expand the XLPE facility so as to serve the steadily growing demand for medium voltage power cables in the Americas. XLPE production capacity at this facility is set to increase by 10 kta to reach a total capacity of 42 kta by the year 2024.

As per MRC, Borealis (Vienna, Austria) has announced several deals for its certified renewable feedstock range for use in polypropylene (PP) and polyethene (PE) packaging and pipeline products. Borealis, one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and circular polyolefin solutions and a European market leader in base chemicals and fertilizers, has announced that Nupi Industrie Italiane (NUPI) has selected the ™ polypropylene (PP) for the next generation of their PP-RCT (Polypropylene Random Crystalline Structure Temperature) piping solutions for domestic plumbing, heating as well as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems designed to perform under higher stress conditions and temperatures.

Borealis is one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and sustainable polyolefin solutions and a European front-runner in polyolefins recycling. In Europe, we are a market leader in base chemicals and fertilizers. We leverage our polymer expertise and decades of experience to offer value adding, innovative and circular material solutions for key industries such as consumer products, energy, healthcare, infrastructure and mobility.
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