Institutional investment firm Ironridge Technology has invested US$5 million in American bioplastics manufacturer Cereplast, which has been beset with low sales and production stoppage. It will also allow the firm to expand in India. Meanwhile, PLA maker NatureWorks is increasing its capacity to 150,000 tonnes/year, using new equipment from Swiss firm Sulzer Chemtech.

Cereplast Chairman/CEO Frederic Scheer has said the investment will allow the firm to restart its production schedule and access raw materials. The funding will also allow it to support its recently opened office in Hyderabad, India, where the firm sees interest from potential customers totalling more than 1,800 tonnes of its materials. The firm also posted a loss of US$6.3 million in the first half of the year, compared to the US$4.1 million loss it made in the same period in 2011.

NatureWorks, on the other hand, is increasing its production capacity and ability to make speciality products with proprietary equipment from Swiss manufacturer Sulzer Chemtech.

The new equipment will be installed in early 2013 and will increase the site’s production capacity by 7%.

NatureWorks says it will abe able to make speciality grades of high-performance resins and lactides based on its Ingeo-brand biopolymer. The new materials can be used in injection moulding applications and in fibres.

NatureWorks owns patents to the process used to make the new materials, while Sulzer has exclusive worldwide sublicensing rights to the process.

US private equity firm Carlyle Group has paid US$4.9 billion to acquire DuPont Performance Coatings.

German chemicals firm BASF has set up a new research laboratory for thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) in the US.

German automotive products supplier Mann + Hummel GmbH is expanding in China by acquiring Bengbu Haoye, a manufacturer of filters for the automotive industry.

US-based Emerald Kalama Chemical is building a facility to manufacture environmentally friendly materials in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, at the plant it acquired from DSM in 2010.

Mitsui Chemicals of Tokyo has established a company for functional polymeric materials in Shanghai’s Jinshan district.

Five years after Huntsman Polyurethanes teamed up with renewable resource-based polyol producer Alberdingk Boley to co-develop PU solutions for the coatings market.

Solvay Advanced Polymers is upping capacity for its Spire polyetheretherketone (PAEK) by 70% at its Panoli, India, plant.

In lieu of a growing lighter vehicles trend, Lanxess opens its first US$20 million worth production plant for high-tech plastics plant in Gasronia in the U.S. state of North Carolina, to help meet the increasing demand for premium, lightweight plastics.