Company Dynamic

Tesco has become the latest retailer to commit to removing chemicals thought to be hazardous from the supply chain of its clothing brand.

• Tesco

McCormick & Co agreed to acquire Reckitt Benckiser’s food business for $4.2bn, adding French’s mustard and Frank’s RedHot sauce to its lineup of spices and seasonings.

• McCormick

Unilever reported second-quarter sales growth in line with estimates as hot European weather boosted sales of Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum ice-cream brands and the company raised prices to offset stagnant volume.

• Unilever

The 3M Company said that it has launched 3M Attest rapid readout biological indicator (BI) system for vaporised hydrogen peroxide sterilisation (VH202).

• 3M

Showa Denko K K (SDK) has established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Showa Chemicals of America Inc (SCA), in Austin, Texas, aiming to strengthen its sale of high-purity gases for electronics in US.

• SDK
• SCA

Shell Australia, an Australian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, confirmed that its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility has arrived in Australian waters.

• Shell

PPG Industries Inc (PPG) said that it has appointed two executives, effective immediately.

• PPG

AkzoNobel NV announced that it has made changes to its executive committee. This change is designed to drive operational excellence, increase customer focus, and build further momentum and speed into the organisation.

• AkzoNobel

BASF SE has now improved the process for manufacturing Lupranol (polyether polyol) so that car components which are made of BASF polyurethane systems emit an average of 20 percent less aldehyde.

• BASF

Paints and coatings group AkzoNobel which is seeking to ward off a hostile takeover bid by US rival PPG Industries has sidestepped a move to put the matter up for discussion at a future extraordinary general meeting

• AkzoNobel
• Coating

Chemicals and seeds company DuPont, which is merging with Dow Chemical , reported a 15.5 percent fall in quarterly profit on higher costs.

• DuPont

Kuwait’s state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) is discussing a joint venture with commodities traders or international oil companies to start trading refined oil products, Bloomberg reports, citing an official at KPC.

• Petroleum
• Kuwait

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has found an unexpected ally in Mercedes Benz’s India boss. Roland Folger wants the government to offer incentives on electric-car imports until local output becomes viable...

• India
• Car

Petrochemical giant LyondellBasell is planning to build the world's largest propylene oxide and tertiary butyl alcohol plant in the Houston area, the company's Indian-American CEO has said.

• LyondellBasell
• Alcohol

BASF SE is set to discontinue the production of extruded polystyrene (XPS) at its Schwarzheide location in Germany, due to overcapacity and low margins, the German chemicals company announced July 24.

• BASF

Nova Chemicals Corporation (Nova Chemicals) said that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of Williams Partners LP’s (Williams) 88.46 percent ownership interest in the Geismar, Louisiana olefins plant.

• Nova

Canpotex, a short for Canadian Potash Exporters confirmed that it has signed new potash supply contracts with its Chinese customers for shipments of 1.4 million metric tonnes (MT) through to the end of 2017.

• Canpotex

Saudi Arabia’s efforts to shore up global oil prices ahead of the planned listing of Saudi Aramco was met with a shrug from the markets as traders kept their eyes on US shale.

• Saudi
• Oil

BASF SE said that by the end of 2017, it will concentrate on production of XPS boards (extruded polystyrene) at its Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

• BASF

Covestro (India) Pvt Ltd along with Vivunes, an organisation based at Chennai focused on green energy, has successfully helped an entire community of 70 farmers in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri find an additional source of revenue.

• Covestro