ICIS Chemicals Confidential: December 2008 Archives

Top Chemical Xmas Cards 2009

By Barbara Ortner on December 24, 2008 12:15 PM

Does anyone send business Xmas cards any more? Apparently so, but they're just not very good at doing it.

The Blog's top tip for the sending of business Season's Greetings cards: for hard copy cards, make an effort and post them on time!

What is more ridiculous than cards that arrive after the event? Answer: e-cards that arrive after the event! Do you really want to do business with a company that can't get itself organised to send an email on or before 24 December?

Here are the Blog's favourite cards from this year's haul ...

Top 3 hard copy cards at the south end of the ICIS office:

1 Zaklady Azotowe Pulawy SA - heavy red and gold UNICEF card, with personalised hand-written message.

2 LyondellBasell acetyls - nice personalised hand-written note.

3 International e-Chem - stylish card on thick vellum with two personalised messages, and printed locally in Wilmslow.

Top 6 e-cards to the Blog's inbox:

1) The Arkema Raw Materials Purchasing Team card (multilingual greetings with music and low-key animation.)

2) The ECEM card (most worthy card, with its donation to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund.)

3) The AOT card (most polar bear-themed card with a sequence of bears with cute captions.)

4) Nicest to mass mailing lists: The Royal Opera House card (gently falling snow on the Covent Garden plaza with musical accompaniment), the Continental Airlines card (animated bunnies and snowmen with festive music), the Financial Times card (uplifting picture of a St Bernard's dog on a mountain top with a copy of the FT in its mouth.)

5) ICIS (functional with twinkling fir trees, with click-through to the ICIS news website.)

PS My semi-French colleague messages to tell me that the French send their cards after Xmas cos they are New Year cards. Not many people know that ...

EPCA Berlin 2009 Opening Party at Mercedes World

By Barbara Ortner on December 23, 2008 2:03 PM | 2 Comments

With perfect timing, EPCA has announced today that the 2009 conference will showcase the abiding links between the chemical business and the automotive industry.

"EPCA EXHIBITON AT MERCEDES WORLD - BERLIN - 4 TO 7 OCTOBER 2008
EPCA will organize the opening event of its 2009 Annual Meeting at Mercedes World in Berlin on Sunday 4 October. Together with Cefic, EPCA will organize an exhibition at the same venue in Berlin from 4 to 7 October 2009. The purpose of this exhibition is to show the positive interaction between the chemical and the car industries versus sustainability. More news on this exciting initiative will follow in the March 2009 newsletter."

The general theme for the 2009 business session, which will again combine the EPCA Annual and Logistics Meetings, will be "sustainability".

Since publication, EPCA has let us know that the exhibition is not a confirmed part of the programme yet.

Photos, flowers and chemicals

By Barbara Ortner on December 23, 2008 12:56 PM

It's the last day in the office and there is a light smattering of festive cards on desks and cupboards - fewer and fewer of them every year (Demise of the Chemicals Xmas Card), and even the e-cards have been paltry this year.

Amongst them there was a festive email from my friend Phil who is already gearing up for this year's International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) competition, which he thinks would be the ideal vehicle for some petrochemical company which would be interested in associating itself with world-renowned Kew Gardens. The photography competition is going to be the centrepiece of the Kew 2010 summer festival, which will take as its theme "Biodiversity", so would be ideal for a sponsor looking to promote its green core values.

(Category winner 3rd place 2008, "Friends" by Andras Meszaros from Agard, Hungary)

Alert: Kids in the Office

By Barbara Ortner on December 23, 2008 11:15 AM

connor 2.jpg In the last few days before the holidays, office buildings are strangely full of small children. They are brushed and clean and curiously similar to people you work with, only shorter and cuter and more fresh-faced. In the mornings they are bashful and hiding behind chairs, but by the afternoon they are surfing Facebook and crashing up and down in the lifts.

The office canteen is a wonderland of normally forbidden chips and fizzy drinks, so by the end of the day the little cherubs are completely hyperactive and the poor dad or mum is stressed to the limit from interrupted phone calls and the disapproving looks of their colleagues.

I can distantly remember as a child visiting parental workplaces, which were huge spaces populated by giants just like in Jack and the Beanstalk. My own grown up children remember clearly their childhood visits to the Reed Business Information offices in a more child-hostile decade, particularly when an adult in the lifts referred to them as "rug rats", and most prominently when my sweet-natured colleague Carolyn gave them money to spend on chocolates in the shop. Those visits were when they first found out that their mother said she went to work, but really went to a place where she could play on the computer all day - a misapprehension which has been hard to shake even to this day.

One friend tells the tale of how she started work at a chemical company, in the same business that her father had been in, only to find that there were senior managers there who still remembered her as a child with her crayons, and who kept popping in to her office to gaze on her with disbelief.

connor 1.jpg

(Photos of ICIS Baby Connor taken earlier in the year.)

Click here for more about children who follow their parents into the petchems business: Chemicals II: the Next Generation.

Top four episodes of "The Simpsons" featuring oil and chemicals

By Barbara Ortner on December 22, 2008 8:02 AM

Episodes of "The Simpsons" are recycled so often that it's hard to believe they were created so long ago. This first one is the most obvious oil-related episode which everyone remembers, and then the others are progressively more obscure and, as can be seen, I ran out of ideas quite quickly ...

1 Who Shot Mr Burns (Part 1) airdate May 1995

Oil is discovered under Springfield to the benefit of the whole town but Mr Burns builds a slanting well which captures all the oil for himself, ending in his eponymous shooting.

2 Bart After Dark airdate November 1996

An oil tanker crashes on the coast, and Lisa goes to help clean up seabirds, in a reference to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

3 The Simpsons Movie - 2007

The Simpsons move to Alaska where all residents receive an annual oil royalty of $1,000.

4 Half-Decent Proposal airdate February 2002

Homer and Lenny go to work on an oil rig and cause a major fire.

And more in the same vein featuring oil (bad), chemicals (bad) and nuclear power (bad).

Spiky heels in glossy BASF calendar

By Barbara Ortner on December 19, 2008 12:14 PM

If corporate gifts have been cut back this year, the same cannot be said of wall calendars. There can never be enough wall space for the number of calendars which the ICIS London editorial team has received this month. So far, the largest, glossiest, most expensively produced, and by far the reddest 2009 calendar is the BASF Plastics calendar, with its chic pictures of spiky heels, eco-bags and cantilevered chairs. It's a pity that in the broad open-plan offices of Quadrant House, there isn't a pillar wide enough to take the calendar. A bit of a corporate oversight there.

ICIS Houston party December 2008

By Barbara Ortner on December 19, 2008 10:38 AM | 1 Comment

See 31 seconds of Texan holiday party spirit in this video clip from Sullivan's Steakhouse, Houston. The musical accompaniment is provided by Lane Kelley on the mandolin and George Martin on guitar, both from ICIS Houston.

Williams Olefins' Knopp named new president of NECA

By Barbara Ortner on December 17, 2008 4:52 PM

Kelly Knopp of Williams Olefins was announced as the new president of the Northeastern Chemical Association (NECA) at the Association's Winter Meeting in New York City, a NECA spokeswoman confirmed on Wednesday.

The other incoming officers for 2009 are: VP, Stephen Roemer of Flint Hills Resources; Treasurer, Chris Switzer of Sound Tankers; Corresponding Secretary, Terry Truitt of Chevron Phillips; and Recording Secretary, Bill Lombardi of Gulbrandsen Tech.

Nasty and brutish - a broker's life

By Barbara Ortner on December 17, 2008 4:03 PM

This excessively rude film clip gives the flavour of an oil broker's life, according to my colleague Linda.

(Disclaimer: ICIS would like to make it clear that it does not condone the mean treatment of brokers, regardless of whether they are oil or chemical brokers.)

Joke on American cars

By Barbara Ortner on December 10, 2008 5:01 PM

As US petchem folk slouch into New York City for the NECA Winter Meeting on Thursday, complaining about falling chemical prices, reduced demand and job cuts, the topic of government bailouts for bankers, the housing market and the automotive industry is never far from their minds.

This spoof advert for the American car bailout made us laugh - and thanks to Alexis for sparing our blushes with his modesty veil over the top slogan.

Click here for Joe Kamalick's most recent article on ICIS news about the chemicals link to the automotive bailout.

Richard Dodgson joins Hess Energy

By Barbara Ortner on December 10, 2008 2:30 PM

Richard Dodgson, formerly with Masefield, Innovene and BP, will be setting up a global aromatics trading operation for Hess Energy.

Hess Energy, which hasn't previously been in the aromatics trading business, will be adding this to their London office, alongside naphtha and gasoline.

Traders who are currently active in aromatics will be hoping that the arrival of new players will help to boost liquidity in a quiet market where spot prices are close to record low levels.

Click here for the full article on ICIS news.

"It's quiet out there... too quiet..."

By Barbara Ortner on December 9, 2008 2:17 PM

Peter Salisbury, aromatics editor at ICIS pricing, reflects on what to do in the office when the markets are quiet ...

A European styrene trader who shall remain unnamed spent November and the first two weeks of December in Argentina, the lucky sod, working from his mobile (full disclosure: I got a couple of weeks in there myself). It seems he had had a pretty good quarter and decided to take things easy for a while.

His fellow traders probably wish that they could do the same thing as a long, slow December begins, with no real way of knowing what the new year will bring. Trading volumes are diminishing every week; demand is awful, I am reliably informed, and there really isn't much going on.

Even if there aren't many deals being cut, an ICIS aromatics reporter can find ways to keep himself occupied - calculating arbitrage values, checking out plant capacities, discussing the economy with contacts via Yahoo! messenger.

So it comes that in the odd idle moment I find myself doing a bit of Googling, and come across this article from July of this year -- and find it rather apt. If you are tired of doom, gloom, and inactive markets, then the Onion is probably as good a place as any for a bit of a satirical giggle.

I hope it amuses those of you with a little bit of time on your hands.

Cheers

Peter

No-fertilizer heaviest potato found in Lebanon

By Barbara Ortner on December 8, 2008 12:45 PM | 1 Comment

My colleague Steve Mitchell, expert on all things pertaining to fertilizer, shows me this BBC article on a massive potato grown in Lebanon. "Imagine how large it would've been if they had used fertilizer," he says.

Click here for more blog potato information.

All roads lead to the Middle East

By Barbara Ortner on December 8, 2008 12:24 PM

Like most Europeans, I have lost all interest in American news since the election. Des Moines, Wasilla, Juneau - who needs to know where they are now? If they're not on the petrochemical world tour map, we've already forgotten them.

For in the world of petrochemicals, all roads lead to the Middle East. While Europeans are worrying about whether it looks too ostentatious to hold a conference in Monte Carlo, and one major American producer was heard saying "Unless it's to collect payment, we can't travel anywhere," the Arab Gulf producers have just finished their GPCA at Dubai's Atlantis, the newest, flashiest hotel complex on the planet, whose opening party in November was covered in full technicolour in every celebrity magazine with pictures of the Beijing-style synchronised fireworks, Robert de Niro, Charlize Theron, Michael Jordan. Click here for one of the many videos of the spectacular opening.

ICIS had its own team from our Singapore office in Dubai to cover the GPCA, although one of them didn't make it because he had the great ill fortune to be in Bangkok airport just as it was being blockaded. He was stuck there from 26 November and eventually found his way back via train to Penang and then a flight to Singapore on 1 December.

The lure of Dubai is great for ex-ICIS reporters. Four of them have joined the Dubai goldrush, and have packed their bags to report from the glittering shopping malls in the desert. With them in mind, I read this rather acerbic article in the Times on folk who holiday in Dubai. The headline is: "Why I'd rather die than visit Dubai."

On a side note, it seems that the locals are only too willing to make friends with visitors. The Blog's own fair daughter had a summer job there last year as part of a science fair in the Mall of the Emirates. She and her student mates wore tee-shirts saying "Science Fair - Ask me anything." Apparently the local science-loving youth were keen to do just that.

Click here for ICIS news coverage from Bohan Loh at the GPCA.

Eurostar offers "5 tips for frugal trips"

By Barbara Ortner on December 8, 2008 12:20 PM

Eurostar - the London/Continent train line - has sent out an emailshot this morning to all its customers offering "5 tips for frugal trips." They are:

1 Travel mid-week on Eurostar.

2 Get around Brussels by tram, bus and tube.

3 Buy beer in Brussels at Theatre Royal de Toone.

4 Go shopping in the flea market in Brussels.

5 Book into cheap hotels.

Some helpful tips there for chemicals travellers to next week's European Petrochemical Luncheon (EPL) at the spartan Brussels Hilton.

ICIS Top 40 Power Players, with added "People's Choice"

By Barbara Ortner on December 8, 2008 12:14 PM

Today's issue of ICIS Chemical Business has the final results of the "ICIS Top 40 Power Players." For the first time, readers were invited to vote for the controversial "People's Choice" on the networking site ICIS Connect. The poll was won by a long chalk by LyondellBasell's Volker Trautz, who is clearly very popular with his own employees.

Local knowledge wins the day

By Barbara Ortner on December 5, 2008 5:12 PM

Yesterday a sign went up outside the empty estate agent on the high street to say that a Starbucks would be opening there. As if we need a Starbucks when there are already to my knowledge six independent coffee shops in the high street, all full of mums and students and little old ladies with bags of shopping.

There's Girasole, a coffee shop tacked on to an Italian deli; L'Amandine, a small room with a couple of pavement tables; the Vinery (my favourite), a greasy spoon serving all-day breakfasts; a sandwich bar for office types; a cafe next to Tesco's frequented by navvies; and the old-fashioned one down by the cottage hospital. What will happen to these "mom-and-pop" outfits once the Starbucks moves in? Will the market expand to embrace the newcomer, or will the smaller enterprises go to the wall?

My children have grown up on the all-day veggie breakfasts and falafel wraps served by jolly Mediterranean men behind the counter and a succession of buxom east European waitresses. I've been correcting the spellings in their ridiculously misprinted menus with my biro for years. You can't buy loyalty like that, and anyway I can buy as many discounted Starbucks coffees as I want in the ICIS building, so why do it in my own time?

Times are hard. Shoppers are switching from mainstream supermarkets to discount stores. The enthusiasm with which the office used to discuss the opening of the new Primark has switched to the virtues of Lidl. One colleague explains it's good for German cheeses, another says it's great for olives and antipasti. On my drive home from work I notice there's a Lidl in Kingston which must have been there for years but I've only just seen it this week. Our eyes have been opened to cheap shopping.

At home we are discussing whether to succumb to the email barrage from the Times to buy direct, cut out the middle-man newsagent distributor, and have our newspapers delivered to our door, guaranteed before 7 am, saving £2.50 a week into the bargain.

Never mind that we've been having the paper delivered by the newsagent on the high street, via various small boys on bikes and elderly gentlemen with trolleys, for I don't know how many years. Once when I was rampaging up and down the street looking for my lost son, Mr Gandhi the newsagent told me he'd been in the shop a few minutes earlier looking at the comics. So he recognised me, and knew my little son, even thought we'd only ever exchanged a few words over the paper bills. Another time he lent me an Oyster card when I couldn't find mine. It is on such small kindnesses that a community is build, so I think we will hang in there with our local suppliers.

When oil prices were at their peak earlier this year, economic pundits were anticipating a resurgence in local sourcing throughout the whole petrochemical supply chain. Business leaders were lauding the security, speed and flexibility of local suppliers, not to mention the environmental benefits. It would be stupidity to discard reliable local suppliers for short-term price advantage, whether it's for petchems or newspapers or falafel wraps.

Godzilla destroys chemical storage tank

By Barbara Ortner on December 4, 2008 1:16 PM

My ICIS Houston colleague Brian Ford tells me that his tableau of Godzilla wrecking a chemical storage tank is an artistic representation of the economic woes that have befallen the petchem industry.

"I sculpted the Godzilla figure a few years ago, got a friend to make moulds and cast up several copies - I just got through painting it up and finding stuff to put on the base," he says.

Personally, I like Godzilla's left profile the best. It shows off his cheeky smile, sharp pointy teeth and smart white back fins to best advantage.

Fraternal greetings to the APLA Blog

By Barbara Ortner on December 4, 2008 1:14 PM

APLA launched its own blog on 27 November with a hearty "Bienvenido al blog de APLA!"

It's at http://blog.apla.com.ar/ george martin at apla nov 08.jpg

The first posting on 27 November has some photos and presentations from the APLA Workshop on 17 November at APLA's annual conference in Rio de Janeiro, including our own George Martin, who spoke about "Recent Trends in Polymer Prices - Prospects for Latin America."

Click here for Anna Jagger's round up of the major themes from the APLA conference.

Top Chemical Adverts No. 5 - the GEFO babes

By Barbara Ortner on December 2, 2008 4:54 PM

The Blog is impressed by the very glossy GEFO adverts in this week's ICB special distribution issue, particularly the aerial shot of a chemical tanker, the "Schloss Neuschwanstein", accompanied by a sketch of a long-limbed girl on a swing showing her stocking tops to the slogan "Swing your cargoes from port to port with GEFO tankers." You just don't see much of this retro pairing of girls and unrelated industrial products these days.

Click here for more favourite chemical adverts:

Protecting our heroes.

More top chemical adverts.

Evonik's happy grasshopper.

The BASF baby.

Shouldering the pain of laptops

By Barbara Ortner on December 1, 2008 5:19 PM

The latest ailment to wreak havoc with business travellers is "laptop shoulder." Apparently staff at Crowne Plaza hotels noticed that a great many executives were checking in complaining of shoulder and neck pain, from lugging their heavy laptop bags around with them. The hotel chain has now devised a programme of exercises, to be done in the privacy of your hotel room, to alleviate the pains which afflict 63% of laptop-users and are further exacerbated by air travel, driving and poor posture.

Shoe polish and light sabres - the new BASF website

By Barbara Ortner on December 1, 2008 5:15 PM

BASF's new website design has some very cute mini podcasts on the burning questions of chemistry today, like "What is shoe polish made of?" and "How does a glowstick work?" According to BASF, its site, relaunched on 27 November, has 300,000 visitors a month, making it one of the most highly frequented websites in the chemical industry.

Mikhail Gorbachev to speak at NPRA Luncheon

By Barbara Ortner on December 1, 2008 8:51 AM

Mikhail Gorbachev is to speak at the NPRA Luncheon, it was announced in an email update to members from NPRA on Monday.

He will give the keynote address at the International Petrochemical Luncheon on Tuesday 31 March 2009 in San Antonio, Texas.

In his biographical notes, the NPRA programme says:

Mikhail Gorbachev served as leader of

the Soviet Union from 1985-1991. He is

world-renowned and admired for streamlining

and decentralizing the oppressive

system he inherited. In an effort to secure

relations with the West, Gorbachev

signed two broad disarmament pacts,

and ended Communist rule in Eastern

Europe. He taught the world two new

words: perestroika (governmental

restructuring) and glasnost (political

openness). As a result of his extraordinary

achievements, Gorbachev was the

recipient of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize,

the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner of

Labor, and the Badge of Honor.

December 2008 Archives