ICIS - Search Articles by Date : July 22 2002 - July 28 2002

Zigong starts work on methanol unit
Zigong Honghe Chemical Works started construction work on its 300 000 tonne/year methanol project in Zigong, Sichuan, China recently more
(24 July 2002 14:19)

Promoting foreign direct investment
By Melanie Ann Selvalingam. Promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) remains an important strategy for generating and sustaining more
(25 July 2002 14:58)

New projects summary
As reported in ACN 15-21 July 2002 more
(26 July 2002 08:56)

Banking on long-term prospects
Major investors in Latin America are quite sensibly taking a long-term view of the fertiliser market and say the region has still a lot of growth.... more
(26 July 2002 12:06)

Butane gains
Maleic anhydride production methods are continually being upgraded and new processes - replacing benzene feedstock with butane - have emerged. Muriel.... more
(26 July 2002 12:12)

New projects summary
As reported in ACN 22-28 July 2002 more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Mitsui &Co plans nanotech link-up
Mitsui and Co plans to collaborate with the University of Tsukuba in Japan on research into nanotechnology more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

NFC seeks foreign tech supplier to upgrade plants
National Fertiliser Co (NFC) is seeking a foreign technology supplier, which would also take an equity stake in the company, to upgrade its plants to.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Assets sale part of Saehan's debt plan
Saehan Industries expects to sell assets worth Won200m (US$169 083) from its materials division at Gumi, South Korea, as part of its new.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Indon polyester cos suffer $48m loss in 2 yrs
Indonesian polyester producers have lost more than US$48.09m in revenue as a result of antidumping and antisubsidy duties imposed on them from seven.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Daqing to debottleneck NH3 syn unit
Daqing Methanol, a subsidiary of PetroChina, plans to debottleneck its 54 000 tonne/year ammonia synthesis unit in Daqing, Heilongjiang, China more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

India's ONGC acts to recover dues from chems
Indian petrochemical majors including the Gas Authority of India Ltd (Gail), Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Indian Petrochemicals Corp Ltd (IPCL) are.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Jilin confronts delisting threat
Jilin Chemical Industrial fears it may be delisted from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange next year as it expects to record a loss for the third.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Nissho Iwai eyes Aarti Ind stake
Nissho Iwai is looking at taking an equity stakein Aarti Industries, the world's fifth largest producer of para and ortho-nitro chlorobenzene more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Global roundup
From stories supplied by the CNI and ACN teams. more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Shipping report: Activity slackens
Shipowners are asking for a freight rate of $120/tonne for moving 4000 tonne of propylene from South Africa to Singapore, a route off the beaten path.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Acetone up as deep-sea imports fall
Tight availability has lifted Asian acetone spot prices by US$20-40/tonne from early July to US$460-470/tonne cfr China. more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Tight supply pushes capro up $150-200
Caprolactam contract prices for July have risen by US$150-200/tonne from June to US$1100-1250/tonne cfr NEA on continued tight supply and higher.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Comchem to add ECA capacity in Nov
Weifang Common Chemical Co (Comchem) will complete debottlenecking its 5000 tonne/year ethylcyanoacetate (ECA) plant in Shandong, China more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Chinese buying lifts PX market sentiment
A spurt in Chinese buying interest last week arrested a further dip in Asian paraxylene (PX) prices, which have been under downward pressure due to.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Tight supply could lift butadiene prices higher
Butadiene prices are likely to continue marching upwards in the coming weeks due to protracted tight supply amid a strong recovery in demand from the.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Market trends: Mixed xylenes up $20
Orthoxylene jumps up $20 too, while styrene sees a marginal increase of $5. Most other aromatics hold steady more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Jostling for investments
The number of chemical parks that have emerged in different parts of China is mind-boggling. But can all theseparks succeed? Salmon Aidan-Lee.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

CLARIFICATION
Basell has denied that it is in talks to acquire a stake in  Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) following the story on page 9 of the 15-21 June.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Methanol included in Brunei's chem masterplan
The Brunei government is considering buildinga methanol facility more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Maoming Petchem may build PVC plant
Maoming Petrochemical is considering building a 300 000 tonne/year PVC plant in Maoming, Guangdong, China more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Pertamina does prelim study into PP
Pertamina is carrying out a preliminary study into a PP project in Indonesia, either in Plaju, south Sumatra, or in Balongan, west Java more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Indo-Rama mulls new polyester unit
Indo-Rama Synthetics is mulling building a new polyester plant in either Southeast Asia (SEA), Europe or North America, and expanding its spun yarn.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

SK Chem may build second PET plant in Poland
SK Chemicals may build a second bottle grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) chip plant in Poland if market conditions are good enough more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Petronas + Mitsui &Co shelve EDC
Mitsui & Co and Petronas have shelved plans to build an ethylene dichloride (EDC) facility to feed their joint-venture vinyl chloride monomer (VCM).... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Work on Zhong Yuan methanol starts
Zhong Yuan Chemical Industrial (Group) Co has started construction work on a 300 000 tonne/year methanol plant in Puyang, Henan, China more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

C4s recycling plan
BASF-YPC Co plans to recycle C4s that will be produced at its 600 000 tonne/year cracker currently under construction in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Funding hitch once again delays TPPI aromatics
Financial closure for Trans Pacific Petrochemical Indotama's (TPPI) long-delayed aromatics centre project in Tuban, east Java, is expected to be.... more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Shanxi Coke building tar processing unit
Shanxi Coke (Group) Co is building a 300 000 tonne/year tar processing unit in Shanxi, China more
(26 July 2002 13:58)

Testing times
Industry and protestors are on the same side - against the high number of animal tests that may have to be carried out more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

Taking a giant step forward
How realistic is the prospect of the chemicals industry working with its downstream users? more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

Product profile: Acrylonitrile (ACN)
World supply has tightened this year due to unexpected production problems. Further rationalisation is also likely as new capacity is absorbed. World.... more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

Cleaning up the act
In a study of a number of senior officers at large companies, Hans van den Berg and Jan Moors explored the reality behind the concept of sustainable.... more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

News in brief
QP signs SPA deal Qatar Petroleum (QP) has signed a sale and purchase agreement (SPA), for its share of methanol in Qatar Fuel Additives.... more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

US monitor: Benzene drives aromatics values up
Due to an outage in Texas, benzene prices soared to $1.70/gal, prompting high nominations for August. Mixed xylenes are firm at $1.15-1.19/gal on.... more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

News in brief
Port deal The port of Le Havre, France, has signed a letter of intent with two shipping consortiums covering the operation of two of its.... more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

News in brief
Phthalates warning The US's Food and Drug Administration has warned against the use of several PVC devices containing phthalates. Following.... more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

20 years ago
ECN 26 July 1982 more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

People on the move
Celanese German chemicals firm Celanese has appointed Martin Jager to the management board of Trespaphan, its unit that develops,.... more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

News in brief
Investment plan Israel's Carmel Olefins, jointly owned by Israel Petrochemical Enterprises and the state-owned Oil Refineries, has presented.... more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

News in brief
Symyx inks deal Symyx Technologies has signed a new multi-year research and development agreement to create and apply.... more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

Seaphire wins global technology licence
Seaphire International has acquired an exclusive worldwide licence for technology to create salt tolerant plants more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

Fatty acid route discovered
Sumitomo Chemical has developed a new process to produce fatty acid methyl esters more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

Genetix to collaborate with MRC
Genetix will supply automated equipment and software in a three-year collaboration with the UK Medical Research Council's Human Genome Mapping.... more
(26 July 2002 13:59)

Market trends: Paraxylene up on strong xylenes
Firm mixed xylenes put pressure on paraxylene which rose to $405-415 fob NWE. Benzene eased back as supplies improved and US values also lost some.... more
(26 July 2002 13:59)