Verdict is in
BASF won a $170 million verdict from a Morris County, New Jersey jury that found Lyondell Chemical Co. overcharged it under a contract.  Jurors in the state court in Morristown reached the verdict after three days of deliberation at a trial over whether Lyondell charged its lowest price for propylene oxide, a chemical used in products like mattresses, pillows and seat cushions.  BASF said Lyondell breached a 13-year contract signed in 1998 by failing for eight years to charge the lowest price for any customer.  Lyondell disagreed with the verdict and are evaluating options, including a motion for a new trial.

New facility
Park Electrochemical Corp. has selected the Newton City-County Airport in Newton, Kansas as the site for its new Advanced Composite Materials development and manufacturing facility for aircraft structures.  The $15 million facility will be approximately 50,000 square feet and will contain manufacturing, laboratory and office space.

Acquisition
Akzo Nobel has made an official offer to acquire the U.K. specialty chemical company ICI.  Despite turning down earlier deals, ICI’s board of directors has agreed to the deal and recommended that shareholders accept it.

Propionic acid
BASF is increasing its annual capacity for propionic acid at its sites in Ludwigshafen, Germany and Nanjing, China.  Production in Ludwigshafen will be expanded by 30,000 tons/year and in Nanjing it will be expanded by 9,000 tons/year.  Both expansions should be completed by mid-2009.

PTA plant
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. received a 50 billion yen order for a large-scale purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant from Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen S.A., Poland’s largest oil refining and petrochemical company.  This will be the first PTA plant to be built in Poland.  The Wloclawek, Poland plant will have a capacity of 600,000 tons of PTA/year and should be on-stream in October 2010.  In addition to supplying the major equipment, MHI will provide detailed engineering, equipment procurement and on-site supervision of installation.  PTA is a chemical used in making polyester resins and PET plastic bottles.  In Poland, PTA demand for use in PET bottles has been increasing sharply in conjunction with the country’s economic growth, and this plant should respond to this increased demand.

Explosion
Criminal negligence is the suspected cause of a chemical plant explosion in Savansk, Russia that killed at least four people.  The early-morning blast also injured four other employees.  The Savanskkhimplast factory manufactures 250,000 tons of polyvinyl chloride each year and uses toxic dichloroethane in its process.  A resulting fire was quickly extinguished and there are no major environmental threats.