ICIS - Search Articles by Date : May 06 2002 - May 12 2002

Greater focus
Recent M&A activity in chemicals has been driven by the quest for greater product and market focus. Despite the activity, the business portfolios of.... more
(09 May 2002 09:37)

BorsodChem stake bought
The ownership structure of Hungary's PVC maker BorsodChem has changed again but the implications are unclear. more
(08 May 2002 15:54)

DSM puts unit up for sale
Responding to global consolidation in the market, DSM has put its copolymer emulsion styrene butadiene rubber (ESBR) plant at Baton Rouge in.... more
(08 May 2002 15:43)

News in brief
Butadiene back up Basell's 170 000 tonne/year butadiene extraction unit at Wesseling, in Germany, is now back to full production, following.... more
(10 May 2002 10:33)

News in brief
E-trading grant The US Trade and Development Agency has awarded a $429000 grant to China's Sinopec to establish an e-trading platform. The.... more
(10 May 2002 10:39)

News in brief
HdPE unit planned TVK has awarded contracts to a consortium of Mitsui companies for its planned high density polyethylene plant, which.... more
(10 May 2002 10:33)

News in brief
Nexia in a spin Nexia Biotechnologies has begun work with a leading international supplier of medical textiles for BioSteel spinning..... more
(10 May 2002 10:41)

News in brief
Expanding deal ChemCodes has expanded its technology licence agreement with GlaxoSmithKline to fully leverage its high throughput.... more
(10 May 2002 10:43)

News in brief
BPA safe for use The European Commission's Scientific Committee on Food has ruled that products containing Bisphenol A (BPA) which come.... more
(10 May 2002 10:42)

CDT inks LEP marketing deal
Bayer has signed an agreement with Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) to commercialise materials used in the manufacture of light emitting polymer.... more
(10 May 2002 12:38)

Schering steps up oncology position in US
Schering intends to buy Immunex's Leukine (sargramostim) business as part of an effort to boost its oncology portfolio and to expand its business.... more
(10 May 2002 12:34)

Pharma sales grow despite slowdown, says IMS Health
NorthAmerica set the pace for pharmaceutical sales in 2001, according to IMS Health's annual World review report. more
(10 May 2002 12:28)

Early Q2 market optimism confirmed by higher titanium dioxide
European titanium dioxide prices continue to recover from the low levels experienced during quarter four last year and into quarter one this year more
(10 May 2002 13:16)

BP takes the lead with MTBE to ethanol switch
BP will phase out MTBE in the gasoline it sells in California by the end of 2002. The company says it already has contracts in place with a number of.... more
(10 May 2002 13:22)

Looking east
German contractors managed to avoid the worst of the economic downturn during 2001, as orders from the Middle East and eastern Europe boosted.... more
(10 May 2002 10:58)

Chief executive goes
Trade-Ranger chief executive Claire Farley, is to leave her top position at the company to pursue other business opportunities. more
(10 May 2002 12:52)

Ashland signs Xsilogy deal
Ashland Specialty Chemical's Foundry Products division has signed a deal with wireless technology provider Xsilogy. more
(10 May 2002 12:48)

Six join online marketplace
Six major chemical companies have signed-up for unlimited subscription agreements with online marketplace ChemConnect. more
(10 May 2002 12:47)

People on the move
Rhodia   Jean-Julien Baronnet Jean-Julien Baronnet has been appointed group.... more
(10 May 2002 11:29)

20 years ago
ECN 10 May 1982 more
(10 May 2002 11:22)

Novartis stays cutting-edge
Novartis is to locate its new centre for discovery research inCambridge, Massachusetts, US. The Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR) more
(10 May 2002 12:30)

DSM - And now the most difficult step
By specialising in its core business areas of life-sciences and performance materials, DSM is aiming to become a leading player on the world stage..... more
(10 May 2002 11:18)

Latest Z-N catalyst offers greater yield
Basell has developed a new Ziegler-Natta (Z-N) catalyst family which it expects to be in commercial use by early 2003. The proprietary succinate more
(10 May 2002 12:42)

Worst decline since depression
The longest decline since the Great Depression is how the American Chemistry Council (ACC) describes conditions for the US chemicals industry. more
(10 May 2002 14:19)

UK dismisses tax on bags
The UK Government has denied rumours that it is to impose a plastic bag tax. A spokesman from the UK's Department for Environment, Food & Rural.... more
(10 May 2002 13:10)

Industry report is 'waste of time'
Greenpeace has dismissed the latest PVC industry's voluntary commitment progress report as 'only recycling empty promises'. more
(10 May 2002 13:12)

Scheme takes 'green' approach
A 'Life Cycle Initiative' has been launched by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, and the United Nations Environment Programme more
(10 May 2002 13:12)

VAM suppliers seek Q2 price increase
Vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) suppliers are pushing hard for higher prices in quarter two, despite strong resistance from consumers. more
(10 May 2002 13:31)

Shell invests in pioneering bioethanol technology
Shell has made a $29m equity investment in Canadian bioethanol technology developer Iogen Energy Corporation, amounting to 20% of the more
(10 May 2002 12:37)

TVK divests recycling arm
In its drive to exit plastics, TVK has bought out the minority shareholder in its plastics recycling unit TVK-Ecocenter and put the business up for.... more
(10 May 2002 13:50)

UK output falls unexpectedly
UK chemical industry output took an unexpected dive in March, according to official government statistics published last week. more
(10 May 2002 14:23)

LldPE growth spurred by inventory building
European demand for linear low density polyethylene (lldPE) grew by just over 11% last year, according to industry figures. more
(10 May 2002 13:17)

Pay rise will burden industry
The 3.3%pay rise accepted by Germany's chemical industry union IG BCE will be 'a hard burden and at the limits of what is tolerable'. more
(10 May 2002 13:59)

Argentinian crisis takes toll on Agrium
Argentina's economic crisis is still hammering Canadian fertiliser major Agrium, which reported a first quarter loss of $36m. more
(10 May 2002 14:10)

Growth forecast at 9-10%/year
The distributors' and resellers' share of the North American thermoplastic resin market is forecast to grow at 9-10%/year for the next five years more
(10 May 2002 13:23)

Agrofert profits fall
The Czech agrochemicals group Agrofert has announced a sharp fall in first quarter profits. more
(10 May 2002 13:57)

Solvay completes Ausimont deal
Solvay has doubled the size of its high growth fluorinated specialities business to around Euro900m ($818m) following the acquisition of Italian.... more
(10 May 2002 13:56)

Oil giant warns of fall in profits
Franco-Belgian oil group TotalFinaElf has warned that its first quarter net profits, excluding non-recurring items, will be down by about 40%. more
(10 May 2002 14:11)

Henkel optimistic despite low sales for Chlorox
German consumer products and chemical group Henkel stuck doggedly last week to its forecast of a double digit rise in full-year operating profits. more
(10 May 2002 14:14)

Linde bags TVK bid to expand ethylene capacity
Hungary's Tiszai Vegyi Kombinat (TVK) has awarded German engineering contractor Linde a contract valued at Euro160m ($146m) to build a planned cracker more
(10 May 2002 13:04)

Lilly invests in US projects
Lilly is investing $225m to build a biotechnology research and product development facility at the Lilly Technology Centre in Indianapolis more
(10 May 2002 13:06)

Gacic marks the first phase of $220m unit
Saudi International Petrochemical Company (SIPC) has formally established its first affiliate company, Gulf Advanced Chemical Industries Company more
(10 May 2002 13:07)

Kerteh becomes a major hub
Malaysia has established a petroleum and petrochemical centre aimed at attracting new foreign investment, as well as optimising its gas reserves. more
(10 May 2002 13:05)

ABS price push supported by feedstock cost pressure
European acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) markets have seen significant signs of recovery in the second quarter of this year. more
(10 May 2002 13:28)

LII Europe expands output
LII Europe, a subsidiary of US company LaRoche Industries, is expanding its chlor-alkali capacity in Frankfurt, Germany. more
(10 May 2002 12:55)

Sasol in talks with NPC
South Africa's Sasol has held exploratory talks with Iranian state-owned company National Petrochemical Company (NPC) for possible cooperation more
(10 May 2002 13:00)

Tabriz plant nears completion
Work on Tabriz Petrochemical's acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) project is about 80% complete, said parent company National Petrochemical Company more
(10 May 2002 12:57)

DyStar IPO still up in the air
World-leading textile dyes producer DyStar has 'no plans' to go public in the near future, chief executive officer Alfred Rad said last week more
(10 May 2002 13:48)

Amcor looks to PET packaging
Australian packaging group Amcor plans to acquire the worldwide PET packaging activities of Germany's Schmalbach Lubeca for Euro1.7 bn ($1.55 bn). more
(10 May 2002 13:52)

Werz files legal proceedings
The row between Austrian fibres, plastics and chemicals group Lenzing and its former management board spokesman Jochen Werz has reached the law courts more
(10 May 2002 13:49)