Paolo Barbieri takes over as CEO of Kem One

The Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Paolo Barbieri as Chief Executive Officer of Kem One and as a member of the Board of Directors as of April 3, 2023, said the company.

He will succeed Laurent Lenoir who has served as interim CEO since June 15, 2021. Laurent will continue in his role as Chairman of Kem One Board of Directors. Paolo is a seasoned international executive with over 25 years of experience.

In the first part of his career, he held commercial management positions in various entities of DuPont chemical group, and for the last 10 years he has held general management positions in Europe at Corteva Agriscience, an independent company since 2019 following the sale by DowDupont, specialized in seeds and pesticides.

“His in-depth knowledge of the chemical industry, his focus on safety, his strong customer culture and his human qualities make Paolo Barbieri the leader that Kem One needs to accelerate its transformation and reveal its growth potential," said Chairman Laurent Lenoir, on behalf of the entire Board of Directors.

Paolo Barbieri stated, "I would like to thank the Board of Directors for the confidence they have shown in me. I am delighted to be joining Kem One, whose values and strategic orientations echo my own background. As soon as I join, I will work alongside the teams to help Kem One to achieve its bold goals of becoming a resilient, diversified international player and setting the industry standard in the vinyl sector in terms of low carbon emissions."

“Safety, performance, respect for people and environment, and a customer-focused culture are the fundamentals that will guide my work at Kem One,” Paolo added. An Italian national who is fluent in French, ity, with a perfect command of French language, Paolo Barbieri holds a degree in Business Management from Bocconi University in Milan (Italy) and is a graduate of the IESE Executive Program in Barcelona (Spain).

We remind, on 15 June 2022, Kem One Group announced a leadership transition. Kem One Group today announced a leadership transition. Frederic Chalmin will depart after eight years in the role of Chief Executive Officer. The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Laurent Lenoir, has accepted to serve as interim Chief Executive Officer while the Board undertakes a formal CEO search process to identify a permanent successor.

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Air Products, a world leading industrial gases company serving Malaysia for nearly 50 years, today announced it will build, own, and operate two nitrogen plants in Penang’s Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone and Batu Kawan Industrial Park, said the company.

The company will also further extend its pipeline network in both areas. This strategic investment in additional capacity and infrastructure will strengthen Air Products’ leading position in Northern Malaysia and its capability to meet market needs.

Air Products has established a strong presence in Northern Malaysia with two advanced air separation units in the Prai Industrial Area and a comprehensive pipeline network that covers Prai Industrial Area, Bukit Minyak Industrial Area, Penang Science Park, Batu Kawan Industrial Park, and Valdor Industrial Area. To support growing customer demand, Air Products will build a nitrogen plant at its greenfield site in Batu Kawan Industrial Park, which is home to a host of world-class manufacturing companies and integrate the plant into its existing pipeline network.

The company will also build a new nitrogen plant in the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone to serve the fast-growing demand from the electrical, electronics and other manufacturing industries. Air Products brought its first nitrogen plant in the zone onstream in 2021.

By converting hauled-in liquified nitrogen to gaseous nitrogen supply via pipeline, Air Products brings greater reliability and cost-effectiveness to customers, especially those with high-volume demand. This conversion also helps customers reduce carbon emissions and improve sustainability.

We remind, Air Products confirmed that it is no longer involved in the coal-to-methanol Bengalon, East Kalimantan, Indonesia project, nor in other coal gasification projects in Indonesia. The financial landscape for blue and green hydrogen projects has significantly changed in the last year, driving increasing opportunities for Air Products to invest in these energy transition projects around the world. As a result, the Company has decided to redeploy its financial resources on such energy transition opportunities. Air Products remains committed to its core industrial gas business in Indonesia.

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Fost Plus and Morssinkhof Plastics have signed a contract to build a recycled polyolefins plant in Lommel, Belgium, which is expected to be operational from October 2024, said Plasteurope.

The plant will sort, process and recycle high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) waste. The input post-consumer waste nameplate capacity will be 40,000 tonnes/year, with Fost Plus supplying 24,000 tonnes/year of the input capacity from its post-consumer PMD (plastics, metal and drinks cartons) bag household collection system.

The nameplate capacity on paper will be split 50/50 between HDPE and PP, but will depend on the waste composition with the PP component expected to be larger than the HDPE component in practice, a Morssinkhof company source confirmed.

The input material will be separated by colour, both cold and hot-washed, then extruded and de-odorised, following similar processes as Morssinkhof’s existing recycled polyolefins processes in the Netherlands.

Morssinkhof will target the packaging sector with the recycled polyolefin pellet output.

We remind, LyondellBasell and thermal waste treatment specialist EEW Energy have signed a Letter of Intent for a potential strategic partnership to remove and recycle plastics from incineration bound waste streams. The partnership is also expected to include investment in new sorting facilities to sort the removed plastic waste. The separated and sorted waste will be used as a feedstock for both mechanical and chemical recycling operations, LyondellBasell said in its press release.

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The Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE has decided on the following personnel changes, said the company.

Tobias Dratt (50), President, North America, BASF Corporation, Florham Park, New Jersey, will assume responsibility for the Division Global Business Services, Ludwigshafen, Germany, effective May 1, 2023.

Marc Ehrhardt (54), President, Global Business Services, Ludwigshafen, will, at the same time, assume responsibility for the Division North America, BASF Corporation, Florham Park, New Jersey.

We remind, BASF will establish compounding capacities for its certified compostable biopolymer ecovio in Shanghai, China, said the company. Upon the successful completion of qualification trials, commercial material quantities will be available for customers throughout the region Asia-Pacific from mid-2023.

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BASF will establish compounding capacities for its certified compostable biopolymer ecovio in Shanghai, China, said the company.

Upon the successful completion of qualification trials, commercial material quantities will be available for customers throughout the region Asia-Pacific from mid-2023. The first selected compounds that can be ordered will include film grades for applications like certified compostable shopping and organic waste bags, soil-biodegradable agricultural mulch films and packaging. Thus, customers in Asia-Pacific will benefit from closer proximity to BASF’s innovative biopolymer and services, shorter delivery times and quicker adaptation to changing plastics regulations.

Ecovio® is a high-quality biopolymer which is certified according to international and national standards and can be biodegraded by microorganisms under industrial and home composting conditions as well as in agricultural soil. The BASF biopolymer is one of the few certified compostable polymers complying with the requirements of the European food contact regulation and the US Food Contact Substance Notification of FDA. “With local compounding capabilities, we will be better positioned to accelerate business growth in the important Asian markets by more effectively meeting the needs of film manufacturers across the region,” says Marcel Barth, head of global Biopolymers marketing at BASF. “With upcoming new laws and regulations in a lot of countries in Asia-Pacific enforcing the use of compostable materials in bag applications, agricultural mulch films and packaging, the positive market development is expected to continue."

BASF’s biopolymer ecovio® is certified compostable in accordance with standards such as DIN EN 13432. It is a blend of BASF’s PBAT ecoflex® and renewable raw materials. Typical applications for ecovio® are organic waste bags, cling film, fruit and vegetable bags, as well as agricultural mulch films and food packaging applications. Studies show the advantages of ecovio® for production, packaging and shelf life of food as well as for the collection of food waste. These advantages are based on the material’s certified biodegradability in industrial and home composting as well as in agricultural soil: Food waste is reduced, nutrients are returned to the soil by means of greater volumes of compost – and the accumulation of persistent microplastic in agricultural soil is avoided. This contributes to a Circular Economy by closing the nutrient cycle via organics recycling.

We remind, We remind, BASF begins production of its first bio-based polyol, Sovermol, in Mangalore, India. This product serves the fast-growing demand of eco-friendly products for applications in new energy vehicles (NEV), windmills, flooring and protective industrial coatings in Asia Pacific. Utilizing the existing facilities at BASF's Mangalore site, the Sovermol production facility is now operational after comprehensive planning and construction.

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