|
USA - Honeywell to invest 200 million USD to produce caprolactam in Chongqing [ 24 Jul, 2008]
Honeywell of the United States recently signed an agreement with the local Chongqing Chemical and Pharmaceutical Holding (Group) Company to start feasibility studies for a caprolactam project in the southwest China municipality.
The total investment of the project will be about 400 million U.S. dollars, in which the American company will invest over 200 million U. S. dollars and bring in advanced production technology and management skills.
The project will also help Chongqing municipality form a nylon and derivative products chain and become a chemical fiber production base in central and west China.
Caprolactam is the raw material for producing nylon. It is widely used in chemical fiber and automotive industries.
Honeywell opened a RandD center in Chongqing in May 2007, with 120- odd RandD staff at present
Source: Xinhua
India - FACT to shut down four plants [ 11 Jun, 2008]
Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) will shut down its four production plants shortly. These include ammonia, caprolactam, ammonium sulphate and phosphoric acid plants. The plants will be shut down automatically as the stock of raw materials exhausts, said George Sleeba, chairman and managing director.
He said the decision was only a strategic re-scheduling of production due to shortage of certain raw materials. The plants will re-start fully by the first week of July. Though the company has a long-term contract with Indian Potash Limited (IPL) for supply of raw materials, the same will become fully operational only by next month.
The stoppage of plants has also become imperative as the company is currently facing serious working capital shortage.
George said the season for ammonium sulphate would begin only by next month and the company was having 'enough' stock (18,000 tonne) for the current month. It has a stock of 4,900 tonne of caprolactam.
The company has decided to stop production of phosphoric acid due to shortage of rock phosphate. Phosphoric acid will be purchased from the open market.
During April and May, FACT produced 92,000 tonne of factamfos and 35,000 tonne of ammonium sulphate. The company had stopped production almost a year ago due to the same reason and all the plants were re-started this March.
Source: Business Standard
|
