Michelin, IFP Energies nouvelles, and Axens have opened France’s first industrial-scale prototype facility to produce butadiene derived from biomass at Michelin’s plant in Bassens, near Bordeaux. The facility was built as part of the BioButterfly project, in which the three companies are participating with the support of the French ecological transition agency Adem with the aim of producing butadiene from...
Materials
Evonik to Increase Wet Silica Production Capacity in North America
Evonik will increase wet silica production capacity by 50% at its U.S. plant in Charleston, South Carolina, to meet growing demand from the tire, oral care and other industries in North America. The company plans to invest several billion yen to build a new production line, with construction scheduled to begin in mid-2024 and operations to start in early 2026....
Zeon Obtains ISCC PLUS Certification at Four Facilities in Japan
Zeon has acquired ISCC PLUS certification, an international certification system for sustainable products, at four of its Japanese production facilities, namely the Takaoka, Kawasaki, Tokuyama and Mizushima plants. The certified products include butadiene, synthetic latex, HNBR (hydrogenated nitrile rubber), BR (butadiene rubber), IR (isoprene rubber), NBR (acrylonitrile butadiene rubber), E-SBR (emulsion polymerization styrene butadiene rubber) and S-SBR (solution polymerization styrene...
Asahi Kasei Reports 9M Results
Asahi Kasei posted sales of 2,064.15 billion yen ($13.74 billion), up 1.2% year-on-year in the nine months (April-December) of the fiscal year ending March 2024. The company also posted operating income of 99.50 billion yen, down 15.1%, ordinary income of 90.50 billion yen, down 18.9%, and net income of 58.57 billion yen, down 11.0%. In the materials segment, sales declined...
Ube Sales Down But Net Income Up: 9M Results
Ube posted results for the nine months (April-December) of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. Sales were 332.95 billion yen ($2.23 billion), down 9.6% year-on-year; operating income 12.31 billion yen, down 5.2%; ordinary income 23.18 billion yen, compared with a loss of 4.53 billion yen in the same period a year earlier; and net income of 19.95 billion yen,...
Mitsui Chemicals Posts 9M Results
Mitsui Chemicals results for the first nine months (April-December) of the fiscal year ending March 2024 showed revenue of 1,274.53 billion yen ($8.54 billion), down 10.8% year-on-year; core operating profit of 72.38 billion yen, down 34.4%; and net income of 37.26 billion yen, down 42.6%. Among segments, Mobility posted sales revenue of 398.36 billion yen, up 1.9%, and core operating...