Business Concentrates EMPLOYMENT PETROCHEMICALS
Amgen and Genentech cut jobs in California
▸ ExxonMobil mulls southern China complex
Amgen is again making cuts to its research unit, this time shedding about 200 R&D jobs, primarily at labs in California. In March, about 500 employees at Amgen’s Thousand Oaks, Calif., headquarters were affected by a decision to shift certain research activities and support services to other sites. As part of the earlier move, research was concentrated at the firm’s facilities in San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass., threatening some 100 jobs in its discovery and translational research operations. In a statement Amgen says the new round of cuts is driven by a need to be “increasingly efficient in our operational discipline.” In a separate move, but one also aimed at efficiency, Genentech is shedding 130 jobs at its Vacaville, Calif., manufacturing facility. The company points to changing demand for injectable medications.—LISA JARVIS
AGRICULTURE
▸ Yara acquires digital farming firm The Norwegian fertilizer maker Yara International has acquired Agronomic Technology Corp. (ATC), a four-year-old marketer of fertilizer recommendation
Yara says ATC will strengthen its position in digital farming. software developed at Cornell University. Yara, which calls itself the world’s leading crop nutrition provider, says ATC will expand Yara’s position in digital farming.—MICHAEL MCCOY
INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
▸ Inovyn expands chlorine in Germany Ineos’s Inovyn chlorovinyls business plans to install a new membrane-cell chlorine plant at its site in Cologne, Germany. Set to be completed by 2021, the project will add chlorine production that will feed Ineos’s propylene oxide plant, also in Cologne. Inovyn recently converted a mercury-cell chlorine plant in Stenungsund, Sweden, to membrane technology and completed
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a membrane-cell expansion in Antwerp, Belgium. Other firms have been investing in chlorine in Germany. A chlorine cell conversion is allowing AkzoNobel to expand chloromethane capacity. And Inovyn competitor Vinnolit is installing a new membrane chlorine unit.—ALEX TULLO
POLYMERS
▸ Borealis plans polypropylene boost Austrian chemical maker Borealis plans to expand capacity at its European polypropylene plants in a series of projects that will be completed by 2022. Additional propylene production in Kallo, Belgium, where the company is planning a 750,000-metric-ton-per-year propane dehydrogenation plant, will enable the polymer expansions, the firm says. European supplies of polypropylene aren’t keeping up with demand, says Borealis, which will use the new output for packaging and automotive applications.—ALEX TULLO
ASIA
▸ Air Products invests again in Chinese coal gasification Air Products has signed an agreement with Yankuang Group to build a $3.5 billion coal gasification plant in Yulin, China. The deal was signed in Beijing before Chinese Pres-
ident Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald J. Trump. A joint-venture majority owned by Air Products will build gasification, syngas cleanup, and air separation units by 2021. The syngas will provide feedstock for as much as 4 million metric tons per year of chemicals and liquid fuels. In September, Air Products formed a similar, $1.3 billion gas-to-liquids venture with Lu’An Clean Energy.—ALEX TULLO
MATERIALS
▸ Toray, Mitsubishi invest in carbon fiber Auto industry demand for carbon-fiber-reinforced composites is driving new investments by Japanese chemical makers. Toray Industries plans to build a facility in Jalisco, Mexico, to make a new carbon fiber variant with cost and performance characteristics suited for lightweight car body components. Production should start at the end of 2018. Separately, Mitsubishi Chemical has acquired a 44% stake in CPC Group, an Italian maker of auto body carbon fiber composites. Mitsubishi says it expects to have composite sales of $880 million by 2020.—MARC REISCH
DRUG DISCOVERY
▸ GSK recruits R&D head from Calico Patrick Vallance, GlaxoSmithKline’s president of R&D, will leave the British drug
C R E D I T: YA RA
ExxonMobil will work with officials from the southern Chinese city of Huizhou to evaluate the construction of a petrochemical complex worth billions of dollars. The partners are disclosing few details other than to say the project would feature a large ethylene cracker and downstream facilities. ExxonMobil already owns a 25% stake in a venture with Saudi Aramco and Sinopec that operates a refinery and petrochemical complex in Shandong, on China’s east coast.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
