ICIS - Search Articles by Date : February 09 2004 - February 15 2004

ICI receives financial knock for Q-Star system bungle
ICI took an £11m (€16m/$20m) charge in its 2003 results to write off investment in the Q-Star enterprise resource planning (ERP) system at Quest’s.... more
(09 February 2004 11:47)

Aventis to turn down Sanofi bid
Aventis chairman Igor Landau, speaking last week at the Franco-German life sciences major’s 2003 results presentation, dismissed any possibility of.... more
(09 February 2004 11:47)

Oils in Brief
CARGILL Inc. will invest $200 million in Argentina over the next two years by building a new 13,000 ton-per-day soy processing plant in Villa more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Hydro and Statoil End Talks
The Norwegian oil, gas and pet-rochemical companies Norsk Hydro and Statoil are acknowledging that they held talks on a possible merger, but the more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Butadiene Pricing Is Steady Once Again
For the eighth consecutive month, butadiene pricing has rolled over at 29 cents per pound. However, the steady pricing trend could come to an end more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Jobs and People
George Rightmyer George Rightmyer has been appointed vice president of sales for the building blocks business unit at Degussa Corp. An employee more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Petrochemicals in Brief
Celanese Chemicals will increase the off-list selling price for acetic acid, acetyl derivatives, oxo alcohols and polyol products effective March more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Aventis Continues to Give Sanofi the Cold Shoulder
Aventis is drawing on all lines of defense to rebuff the hostile takeover bid of fellow French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Synthelabo Inc., last more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Pharmaceuticals in Brief
ABBOTT Laboratories has received Food and Drug Administration approval for 11 diagnostic assays for hepatitis, prostate specific antigen (PSA) and more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Global Watch: LNG North American Focus Intensifies
Energy concerns, particularly over natural gas, continue to be a pivotal issue for the North American chemical industry. Increasing imports of more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

IT in Brief
PeopleSoft Rejects Higher Oracle Bid PeopleSoft Inc. last week rejected Oracle Corp.'s $9.4 billion bid ($26 per share) for rival enterprise more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Gauging North American LNG Imports
.As these various projects proceed, what will be the impact on LNG imports to the US? To answer that question, the National Petroleum Institute more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Specialty Chemicals Continue Strong Performance
Specialty chemicals companies continued to post improved results in the fourth quarter on strong demand in a number of product areas. Arch more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Silicon Germanium Chips Away at Gallium Arsenide
With many companies, including technology colossus IBM, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in silicon germanium (SiGe), this little known more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Specialties Pricing
Dow Corning is currently implementing selective price increases of 3 to 7 percent for specialty chemicals worldwide. The affected product lines more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Stepan to Build Polyols Plant in Chinese Joint Venture
Stepan Company is expanding its global polyols manufacturing capability through a joint venture agreement with Sinopec Jinling Petrochemical Corp. more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Air Products Boosts Presence in Korea
Korea Industrial Gases (KIG), a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Products and Chemicals Inc., has started up two on-site air separation nitrogen more
(13 February 2004 18:45)

Markets Trends: Aromatics volatile
Prices of benzene, toluene and MX fall, only to firm again as crude strengthens after Opec announces output cut. Styrene and OX markets are bullish more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Market Trends: Methanol up in SEA
But most suppliers say they have no spot cargoes. Strengthening crude values push up naphtha prices while MTBE softens after New Year purchases more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

SBR demand shoots ahead in Asia
DEMAND for styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) in Asia is expected to grow by 4-5% in 2004, outstripping growth in the rest of the world, due to robust.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Polymers hit 8-year high
POLYMER producers were enjoying unusually good margins last week, with prices rising close to levels last seen in mid-1995 more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Trader speculation throws aromatics markets into chaos
AROMATICS markets in Asia were thrown into disarray last week, as prices and price ideas fluctuated from day to day, due to trader speculation and.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

US Trends: Energy costs push up ethylene
But ethylene volumes will be offset by more available capacity. Propylene is in a shortage position and styrene is moving up. Report by Sergey.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Petrocorp: Investors are keen but cautious
PETROCORP is in talks with a number of European petrochemical producers on the sale of a 51% stake in the Philippine polypropylene (PP) producer more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

China faces PE bag duties
CHINA will bear the brunt of the antidumping duties on polyethylene (PE) carrier bags that the US is likely to impose later this year more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Saehan eyes debt-plan closure
SAEHAN Industries hopes to complete its debt-restructuring programme this year after recording a profit for the first time since 1998 and slashing.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Honam sells excess ethylene on spot market
HONAM Petrochemical has 13 000 tonne/month of excess ethylene after ramping up the operating rate of its 700 000 tonne/year cracker to around 95%.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Crompton decides against local partners in Asia
CROMPTON Corp prefers to go it alone in Asia for the time being, rather than tie up with local companies in China, Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand,.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Snippets
TORAY Industries is planning to build a plant in South Korea to produce high-performance resins, information-technology equipment, and.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

JV targets sales of $946m/yr by ‘06
SUMITOMO Electric Industries and Fujitsu expect their compound-semiconductor joint venture to achieve sales of Yen100bn (US$946m)/year by 2006 more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Global roundup
From stories supplied by the CNI and ACN teams more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Polymer Trends: Polymer prices surge
PVC nominations for March are US$110 higher than February settlements and look firm for rest of H1 2004. Prices of PE, PS and ABS also soar to record.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Loyal picks Tianjin for EPS
LOYAL Chemical Industrial has chosen Tianjin as the location for its fourth expandable polystyrene (EPS) plant in China more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Runhua to build VCM and PVC units
JIANGYIN Runhua Chemical Products Co is to build a 500 000 tonne/year vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) unit and a 300 000 tonne/year polyvinyl chloride.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Tata considers urea expansion
TATA Chemicals is considering expanding its gas-based 864 600 tonne/year urea plant at Babrala in Uttar Pradesh, India, by 150 000 tonne/year or 300.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

IPCL revives acrylonitrile plan
INDIAN Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL) has revived its interest in setting up a 100 000 tonne/year acrylonitrile plant in Dahej, Gujarat,.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Oman cracker feasibility study ready this year
OMAN Oil Co expects to complete a feasibility study on its proposed cracker complex this year, said a source close to the project more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Siam Cement mulls C2 again
SIAM Cement is considering reviving a project for a second cracker in Thailand more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Thai Plastics aims to boost Viet PVC
THAI Plastics and Chemicals (TPC) plans to add a new polyvinyl chloride (PVC) line at its facility in Dong Nai, near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

PTIT to submit in March draft of petchem masterplan
THE Petroleum Institute of Thailand (PTIT) expects to present an initial draft of Thailand’s third petrochemical masterplan to the Ministry of Energy.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

PTT to own 48% phenol stake
PTT Pcl will hold a 48% stake in its phenol project, in which its affiliates National Petrochemical Co and Aromatics (Thailand) Pcl will each take 26% more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Coming out of the shadows
In the first of a two-part series of emerging market features, Malini Hariharan examines the economic and political challenges facing Pakistan,.... more
(13 February 2004 20:11)

Chem-wire Express Japan
Chem-wire Express Japan: Edition of 6 February 2004 Basic and Fine Chemicals Toray plans to invest a total of $400m in South Korea until.... more
(09 February 2004 03:36)

Chem-wire Express Japan
Chem-wire Express Japan: Edition of 9 February Basic and Fine Chemicals YMC , a leading supplier of high-performance liquid chromatograph.... more
(10 February 2004 06:15)

Chem-wire Express Japan
Chem-wire Express Japan: Edition of 10 February Basic and Fine Chemicals Nippon Oil Corp is to invest Yen100bn ($949.4m/Euro740.3m) in.... more
(12 February 2004 03:04)

Chem-wire Express Japan
Chem-wire Express Japan: Edition of 12 February Basic and Fine Chemicals Asahi Kasei Chemicals is scheduled to invest Yen1bn ($9m) in.... more
(13 February 2004 03:40)

Kreido inks green deal
The US Environmental Protection Agency and Kreido Laboratories of California, US, have agreed, under a cooperative R&D deal, to.... more
(09 February 2004 11:20)

Producers hold out for higher VAM contracts
VAM producers are hoping that higher quarter one (Q1) European prices can be achieved on the back of tight availability more
(09 February 2004 11:48)

Fourth GTL for Ras Laffan
Qatar Petroleum (QP) has revealed plans to build another gas to liquids (GTL) plant in Ras Laffan before 2010. more
(09 February 2004 11:48)

Cabot in jv to build silica plant
Cabot will build a $30m fumed silica plant in a joint venture with China’s state-owned Bluestar New Chemical Materials Company. more
(09 February 2004 11:49)