Economic Indicators

December 2009; VOL. 116; NO. 13

Chemical Engineering copyright @ 2009 (ISSN 0009-2460) is published monthly, with an additional issue in October, by Access Intelligence, LLC, 4 Choke Cherry Road,
2nd Floor, Rockville, MD, 20850. Chemical Engineering Executive, Editorial, Advertising and Publication Ofces: 110 William Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10038; Phone:
212-621-4674, Fax: 212-621-4694. Subscription rates: $59.00 U.S. and U.S. possessions, Canada, Mexico; $179 International. $20.00 Back issue & Single copy sales. Periodicals
postage paid at Rockville, MD and additional mailing ofces. Postmaster: Send address changes to Chemical Engineering, Fulllment Manager, P.O. Box 3588, Northbrook,
IL 60065-3588. Phone: 847-564-9290, Fax: 847-564-9453, email: clientservices@che.com. Change of address, two to eight week notice requested. For information regarding
article reprints, please contact Angie Van Gorder at angie.vangorder@theygsgroup.com. Contents may not be reproduced in any form without written permission. Publica-
tions Mail Product Sales Agreement No. PM40063731. Return undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: P.O. Box 1632, Windsor, ON N9A7C9.
FOR ADDITIONAL NEWS AS IT DEVELOPS, PLEASE VISIT WWW.CHE.COM
PLANT WATCH
Siemens gasification technology
selected for Taylorville Energy Center
November 10, 2009 Siemens Energy, Inc.
(Orlando, Fla.; www.siemens.com) has
been chosen to provide the coal gasifica-
tion technology for the Taylorville Energy
Center (TEC), the 730-MW (gross) ad-
vanced clean-coal generating plant being
developed near Taylorville, Ill. TEC will be one
of the nations first commercial-scale, coal
gasification plants with carbon capture and
storage (CCS) capability. TECs integrated
gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) tech-
nology will capture and provide storage
for at least 50% of the carbon dioxide that
would otherwise enter the atmosphere. TEC
is projected to be operational in 2014.
Envergent biomass pyrolysis process will
power new facility in Europe
November 4, 2009 A new biomass-to-oil
power plant in Europe will use a process
developed by Envergent Technologies
(Des Plaines, Ill.; www.envergenttech.com),
a Honeywell (Morris Township, N.J.; www.
honeywell.com) company. Plans for the fa-
cility, which is projected to begin operation
in 2012, followed an agreement between
Envergent and Industria e Innovazione, an
Italian power generation company. The new
European facility will be designed to process
about 150 metric tons (dry) per day of a
mixture of pine forest residues and clean de-
molition wood, and convert the biomass mix
into pyrolysis oil. Envergent is a joint venture
between UOP (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.
com) and Ensyn Corp. (Wilmington, Del.;
www.ensyn.com).
Another Unipol polyethylene
plant slated for China
November 4, 2009 Univation Technologies
LLC (Houston; www.univation.com) has an-
nounced that Yulin Energy and Chemical
Ltd. of Yanchang Petroleum Group Co. (Yulin)
has selected Univations Unipol PE Process for
a 300,000 metric ton per year (m.t./yr) poly-
ethylene (PE) plant. The facility will be located
in Shaanxi Province, Peoples Republic of
China. The Unipol PE Process facility will be fed
by a unique combination of conventional
feedstock and coal-to-olefins feedstock.
Planned startup of the facility is 2013.
Aquatech to work on water treatment
and reuse projects in Egypt
October 30, 2009 Aquatech Corp. (Can-
onsburg, Pa.; www.aquatech.com) has
been awarded a contract to supply a
multiple-effect-distillation (MED) seawater-
desalination system for the Abu Qir Thermal
Power Plant in Egypt. The facility will supply
10,000 m
3
/d of fresh water to the power sta-
tions boilers and other users. Earlier this year
Aquatech was also awarded a wastewater
reuse project for a chemical facility by TCI
Sanmar Chemicals LLC, located at Port Said,
Egypt. The reuse system will have a capacity
of 8,500 m
3
/d to recover over 90% of the wa-
ter suitable for use within the complex.
Linde to invest in largest air-
separation unit in India
October 27, 2009 The Linde Group (Mu-
nich, Germany; www.linde.com) has an-
nounced that it will build and commission
a state-of-the-art, 2,550 m.t./d air separa-
tion unit (ASU) at Tata Steel Ltds plant in
Jamshedpur, India. Once commissioned
in early 2012, this will be the largest air
separation plant in India and one of Lindes
largest in Asia. The investment for the new
ASU amounts to nearly 85 million, bringing
Lindes total investment in India over the last
three years to approximately 285 million.
Celanese to expand emulsions
manufacturing in China
October 26, 2009 Celanese Corp. (Dallas,
Tex.; www.celanese.com) has announced
it is expanding its vinyl acetate/ethylene
(VAE) manufacturing facility at its Nanjing,
China, integrated chemical complex. The
investment will support continued growth
plans for the Celanese Emulsion Polymers
business throughout Asia, including China,
India and Southeast Asia and Australia. The
expanded facility will double the companys
VAE capacity in the region and is expected
to be operational the first half of 2011.
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Dow Corning acquires U.S. and Brazilian
silicon-metal-manufacturing assets
November 6, 2009 Dow Corning Corp.
(Midland, Mich.; www.dowcorning.com)
has acquired two chemical-grade-silicon
manufacturing assets from Globe Specialty
Metals, in an acquisition valued at ap-
proximately $175 million. Dow Corning pur-
chased 100% of Globe Metais Indstria e
Comrcio S.A., a silicon metal manufacturer
in Par, Brazil, which will immediately begin
operating as Dow Corning Metais do Par
Ltda. Dow Corning has also acquired a 49%
interest in Globe Metallurgical Inc.s silicon
manufacturing operation in Alloy, West Vir-
ginia. The operation will continue to operate
as WVA Manufacturing LLC.
Arkema proposes to close a
PVC production unit
November 6, 2009 Arkema (Colombes,
France; www.arkema.com) has proposed
a plan to shut down a polyvinyl chloride
(PVC) production unit in Balan, France. The
Balan facility currently has three PVC units
with a 325,000-ton overall capacity. The
smallest of these three units, with a 30,000
ton/yr capacity, will be closed, while the
two remaining plants will be modernized.
This plan is expected to be implemented
2nd Q 2010.
BASF to realign its fuel
cell business
November 5, 2009 BASF SE (Ludwigshafen,
Germany; www.basf.com) is realigning its
business for the fuel cell market. In the future,
competencies for the production of high-
temperature, membrane-electrode assem-
blies (MEAs) will be concentrated in Som-
erset, N.J. Operational activities at the BASF
Fuel Cell GmbH site in Frankfurt, Germany,
will be discontinued effective December 31,
2009. BASF plans to close the Frankfurt site in
the course of 2010.
Alstom establishes carbon capture unit
with Lummus acquisition
October 30, 2009 Alstom (Levallois-Perret,
France; www.alstom.com) has established
a new unit, Alstom Carbon Capture GmbH,
with the acquisition of the former Lummus
Global. The new unit has the capabilities re-
quired for the design and turnkey delivery of
CO
2
-capture plants and will be integrated
into Alstoms existing carbon-capture-sys-
tems activities. Alstom is currently involved at
various stages in ten demonstration projects
of CO
2
capture systems.
Milliken expands colorants portfolio for
global thermoset plastics industry
October 14, 2009 Milliken & Co. (Spar-
tanburg, S.C.; www.millikenchemical.com),
through a subsidiary, has acquired the
assets of Rebus, Inc., a North American
provider of pigment and additive disper-
sions for the thermoset-plastics industrial-
coatings markets. Milliken will continue to
operate Rebuss existing manufacturing
facility in Aston, Pa.
Dorothy Lozowski
BUSINESS NEWS
FOR MORE ECONOMIC INDICATORS, SEE NEXT PAGE CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM DECEMBER 2009 63
Economic Indicators
CURRENT BUSINESS INDICATORS
LATEST PREVIOUS YEAR AGO
CPI output index (2000 = 100) Oct. '09 = 94.2 Sep. '09 = 94.0 Aug. '09 = 93.2 Oct. '08 = 101.0
CPI value of output, $ billions Sep. '09 = 1,491.0 Aug. '09 = 1,481.5 Jul. '09 = 1,454.9 Sep. '08 = 1,835.2
CPI operating rate, % Oct. '09 = 69.6 Sep. '09 = 69.3 Aug. '09 = 68.6 Oct. '08 = 73.7
Producer prices, industrial chemicals (1982 = 100) Oct. '09 = 243.3 Sep. '09 = 248.4 Aug. '09 = 236.9 Oct. '08 = 275.7
Industrial Production in Manufacturing (2002=100)* Oct. '09 = 97.6 Sep. '09 = 97.7 Aug. '09 = 97.0 Oct. '08 = 106.0
Hourly earnings index, chemical & allied products (1992 = 100) Oct. '09 = 149.3 Sep. '09 = 150.1 Aug. '09 = 148.7 Oct. '08 = 143.6
Productivity index, chemicals & allied products (1992 = 100) Oct. '09 = 137.1 Sep. '09 = 136.0 Aug. '09 = 134.3 Oct. '08 = 128.9
60
65
70
75
80
85
70
80
90
100
110
120
1000
1300
1600
1900
2200
2500
J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D
CPI OUTPUT INDEX (2000 = 100) CPI OUTPUT VALUE ($ BILLIONS) CPI OPERATING RATE (%)
2009 2008
400
450
500
550
600
650
J F M A M J J A S O N D
DOWNLOAD THE CEPCI TWO WEEKS SOONER AT WWW.CHE.COM/PCI
1320
1335
1350
1365
1380
1395
1410
1425
1440
1455
1470
1485
1500
1st 2nd 3rd
Quarter
4th
Annual Index:

2001 = 1,093.9 2003 = 1,123.6 2005 = 1,244.5 2007 = 1,373.3

2002 = 1,104.2 2004 = 1,178.5 2006 = 1,302.3 2008 = 1,449.3
CURRENT TRENDS
S
eptember capital
equipment pries (as re-
flected in the Chemical En-
gineering Plant Cost Index)
increased by 0.7% over the
previous month less than
half the increase from July
to August, which amounted
to the largest jump since
equipment prices bottomed
out in May.
Meanwhile, the CPI output
index and operating rate
continue to climb, but each
is still below its level of the
same period one year ago.
Visit www.che.com/pci
for more on capital cost
trends and methodology.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PLANT COST INDEX (CEPCI)
(1957-59 = 100) Sep. '09
Prelim.
Aug. '09
Final
Sep. '08
Final
CE Index
525.6 521.9 608.9
Equipment 621.5 615.8 744.4
Heat exchangers & tanks 563.3 560.9 758.4
Process machinery 604.0 599.1 674.3
Pipe, valves & fittings 768.3 752.0 865.6
Process instruments 409.6 400.7 446.8
Pumps & compressors 895.9 895.9 886.3
Electrical equipment 464.7 462.1 468.5
Structural supports & misc 632.5 630.8 817.8
Construction labor 327.1 327.5 328.2
Buildings 493.0 491.1 529.9
Engineering & supervision 345.4 346.0 351.7
Starting with the April 2007 Final numbers, several of the data series for labor and compressors have been
converted to accommodate series IDs that were discontinued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Annual Index:
2001 = 394.3
2002 = 395.6
2003 = 402.0
2004 = 444.2
2005 = 468.2
2006 = 499.6
2007 = 525.4
2008 = 575.4
*Due to discontinuance, the Index of Industrial Activity has been replaced by the Industrial Production in Manufacturing index from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board.
Current business indicators provided by Global insight, Inc., Lexington, Mass.
MARSHALL & SWIFT EQUIPMENT COST INDEX
(1926 = 100) 3rd Q
2009
2nd Q
2009
1st Q
2009
4th Q
2008
3rd Q
2008
M & S INDEX
1,446.4 1,462.9 1,477.7 1,487.2 1,469.5
Process industries, average 1,515.1 1,534.2 1,553.2 1,561.2 1,538.2
Cement 1,509.7 1,532.5 1,551.1 1,553.4 1,522.2
Chemicals 1,485.8 1,504.8 1,523.8 1,533.7 1,511.5
Clay products 1,495.8 1,512.9 1,526.4 1,524.4 1,495.6
Glass 1,400.4 1,420.1 1,439.8 1,448.1 1,432.4
Paint 1,515.1 1,535.9 1,554.1 1,564.2 1,543.9
Paper 1,416.3 1,435.6 1,453.3 1,462.9 1,443.1
Petroleum products 1,625.2 1,643.5 1,663.6 1,668.9 1,644.4
Rubber 1,560.7 1,581.1 1,600.3 1,604.6 1,575.6
Related industries
Electrical power 1,370.8 1,394.7 1,425.0 1,454.2 1,454.4
Mining, milling 1,547.6 1,562.9 1,573.0 1,567.5 1,546.2
Refrigeration 1,767.3 1,789.0 1,807.3 1,818.1 1,793.1
Steam power 1,471.4 1,490.8 1,509.3 1,521.9 1,499.3
64 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM DECEMBER 2009