2015 is an extraordinary year for the plastic industry. Here are the ten major news of plastic industry in 2015.

     1 The merger between DuPont and Dow Chemical: On December 11th, 2015, DuPont and The Dow Chemical Company, two of the largest chemical companies in American, have announced that they will combine into a new company, named DowDuPont. After the combination, it will become the second largest chemical company after BASF and the largest seed and pesticide company in the world. This merger is only a process and the ultimate goal is to integrate the two companies and form three independent, publicly traded companies, respectively concentrating on agricultural products, material products and specialty products. The restructuring plan will be completed at the end of 2016.

     2 SABIC dissolving innovative plastics unit: On Oct. 8 Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) announced that it will dissolve its Sabic Innovative Plastics unit — the former GE Plastics business that ranks as one of the world’s largest polycarbonate makers. Sabic bulk commodity products ever in innovative unit will be placed in the parent firm’s Chemicals and Polymers unit. Remaining Sabic IP products will be in a new Specialties unit.

    3 Samsung to sell chemicals businesses to Lotte: On Dec. 13 Lotte announced to buy Samsung chemicals businesses in a deal worth a total of KRW3 trillion (2.63 billion dollars). This is Lotte’s largest acquisition. According to exchange provision, Lotte will get 90% stake in the chemicals division of Samsung SDI, 31.5% stake in Samsung Fine Chemicals and 49% stake in joint venture Samsung BP Chemicals. The move will allow Lotte to increase the revenues by more than 30% and achieve KRW 20 trillion (about 17.51 billion dollars). Lotte plans to complete this transaction in the first half of 2016.

    4 BASF SE has inaugurated the second phase of its Asia Pacific Innovation Campus, a 90-million-euro expansion located at BASF’s Greater China headquarters in Pudong, Shanghai. This means that BASF taks another step forward to complete the significant strategy—a quarter of research activities will be carried out in Asia Pacific.

    The Innovation Campus is BASF’s largest R&D center in the region and an important location in BASF’s global research and development network. The expansion will boost its power to innovate in Asia Pacific and serve Asia Pacific — and the world. In addition to the Innovation Campus in Shanghai, BASF is investing about 50 million euros to build a new Innovation Campus in Navi Mumbai, India, which will come into use in 2017.

    5 Solvay Announcing Merger Agreement with Cytec: On July 29, 2015 Solvay SA announced it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Cytec Industries Inc. The total cash consideration will amount to US$5.5 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2015. Cytec will be fully consolidated within the Solvay Group as from Jan 1st, 2016. Cytec’s composites businesses will be integrated into Solvay’s advanced materials operating segment. Its mining chemicals as well as its niche additives and phosphine specialty chemical businesses will become part of Solvay’s advanced formulations segment.

     6 Berry Plastics to buy Avintiv for $2.45: On July 31 Berry Plastics Group Inc announced that it has signed an agreement to buy Blackstone-owned Avintiv for $ 2.45 billion cash. Berry is one of America's top 500 companies, top 20 global plastic packaging company and mainly specilized in medium and high-grade plastic packing production with total assets of $ 7.5 billion and 125 subsidiary corporations. Avintiv focus on special materials and has sales of $2.1 billion in the previous year.

    7 DSM Engineering Plastics announcing leadership change: On July 17, Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, announced Roeland Polet has been named Business Group Director DSM Engineering Plastics, succeeding Roelof Westerbeek. The handover between Westerbeek and Polet will commence on 3 July 2015.

    8 Independence of Covestro—Bayer Material Science: Since September 1, 2015, Bayer Material Science formally separates form Bayer and is legally and economically independent under the new name Covestro. (Bayer currently still holds a 69 percent interest in Covestro). Covestro debuted on the stock market in Frankfurt stock exchange on October 6th. Covestro’s products are mainly raw materials for high-tech polyurethane foam. Covestro is a world-leading manufacturer of polymer materials with 30 manufacturing bases in the world.

   9 Plastic Omnium to buy Faurecia's auto exteriors parts unit for 680 million euros: Plastic Omnium, a component supplier, announced today it agreed to acquire Faurecia's automotive exteriors business in a transaction valued at 665 million euros. The business to be sold includes bumpers and front end modules. The agreement deal does not include Faurecia’s composites business, its plant for Smart in Hambach, France, or two joint ventures in Brazil and China. The sale is expected to close in 2016. The acquisition will nudge Plastic Omnium to above 8 billion euros ($8.81 billion) in sales, placing it among the 25 largest automotive suppliers worldwide.

   10 Chinese and American scientists finding the worm eating plastic: Chinese and U.S researchers have discovered that mealworms can biodegrade plastics. They have extracted and saved the bacterias in the worm’s gut that can biodegrade polyethylene. This research firstly provides scientific evidence for microorganism biodegrading polystyrene, which opens a new door to solve the global plastic pollution problem.

    Researchers led by Stanford University in US and Beihang University in China observed in the lab that 100 mealworms ate between 34 and 39 milligrams of Styrofoam each day– about the weight of a small pill. The worms converted about 48% into carbon dioxide and assimilated a small part within 24 hours. The research found that Mealworms fed a steady diet of Styrofoam were as healthy as those eating a normal diet and their waste appeared to be safe to use as soil for crops. Researchers firstly extracted the bacteria in the worm’s gut that can take polystyrene as the only nutrient. They saved this kind of bacterias in China General Microbiological Culture Collection Center.