July 2011 Archives

The Rhine is sparkling in the late evening sun as we settle down with a glass of local Weißer Burgunder in the chilly blast of the wind off the river. A few other patrons of Rheinterrassen are already wrapped in furry red blankets on this fine summer's evening.

That staple of ICIS news, the Rhine water level, has not been in the headlines recently (not since May) and the river is looking perfectly full. At this bend in the river, barges and canoes are passing without a care in the world.

Most summers we write numerous articles on the Rhine low water level and how it hinders the shipment of chemicals by barge in and out of the chemical plants along the Rhine. The lack of these articles in June and July is a clear indicator of the cool wet summer we have been having in northwest Europe.

photo of Rhine at Mannheim, Germany: wikimedia

What is it with men and T-shirts listing concert tour dates?

On the way to a John Mellencamp concert, there are men sporting tour-date T-shirts for other bands. They are saying, "Look at me, I've been to other gigs too."

Then in the venue itself, the crush around the T-shirt counter is greater than around the bar. These guys want to remember this special evening and show off to similar minded people about where they've been. They want to show that they are part of a defined group, a fan base. I'm never going to do this, but I do at least understand it. It's a souvenir, like an "I ♥ New York" T-shirt.

Strangest of all, some of the guys buy their T-shirts then put them on straight away to go in to the concert. What is going on here? They don't just want to watch the band, they want to BE the band.

Is there scope for petchem conference organisers to offer tour T-shirts: "Brussels, Brussels, Berlin, Brussels ..."

ICIS is collaborating with the Gulf Petrochemicals & Chemicals Association (GPCA) for the Sixth Annual GPCA Forum, which will take place at Atlantis the Palm, Dubai on 13-15 December 2011.

This year's theme is "Moving Downstream - Creating Added Value and Sustainable Growth". Last year's event attracted over 1,300 delegates, and there is already an impressive confirmed list of speakers:

Mohamed H. Al-Mady, Chairman, GPCA and Vice Chairman and CEO, SABIC

Hamad Rashid Al-Mohannadi, Deputy Chairman, Qatar Petroleum

Jim Gallogly, CEO, LyondellBasell

Peter L Cella, CEO, Chevron Phillips

Tom Crotty, Director - Group, Ineos

Luther C Kissam IV, President, Albemarle Corporation

Dr Fahad Al Mubarak, Chairman & Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Saudi Arabia

Click here for more details and registration

The long-planned levy by Wales on plastic bags is now coming into effect in an attempt to curb the number of bags in circulation.

From October 2011 the charge per bag will be 5p, instead of the original 7p proposed, but in a last-minute concession, the Welsh Government has announced that shops employing fewer than ten people will not have to keep records of the carrier bag levy.

Larger businesses will be required to keep track of how many plastic bags they sell, and to account for what is done with the money from the sale of the bags.

Wales is the first UK country to introduce a compulsory fee for plastic bags.

Meanwhile, conspicuously non-plastic collectible bags have been changing hands on eBay since Anya Hindmarch launched her iconic "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" bag in late 2007, followed by a slew of knock-off copies.

photo: poshaccessories

Solvay inadvertently released its results highlights for the second quarter of 2011 on its website on 25 July, instead of 28 July, my colleague Graeme points out in this article on ICIS news. A technical incident at the Belgium-based company pushed the highlights out earlier than planned, but the company is sticking to its scheduled release date for the full results report.

The ICIS global ranking of chemical distributors shows the leaders as Brenntag, Univar, Helm and Nexeo. This week's ICIS Chemical Business is a special issue with the Top 100 distributors listed by 2010 sales. Plus for the first time, the leaders shown by geographic regions in separate tables.

Click here for the Top 100 Chemical Distributors listing

Seal Sands, famous for its chemical storage tanks on the UK's east coast, is full of seals, the Blog hears from hairdresser Michael (47) in an unexpected departure from the traditional hairdressing topics of holidays, local scandal and hair.

He is telling me about dolphin and whale watching in Spain, when he drops into the conversation that Seal Sands is the place to go to see hundreds of seals.

What, Seal Sands with its 220,000 cubic metres of chemical storage in 111 tanks, not to mention site of largescale acrylonitrile production? A haven for wildlife?

The best place to see the seals is on a sandbank at low tide, and if you take a boat out, the sea is teeming with them, Michael, a native of Hartlepool, tells the Blog while wielding his circular brush.

Photo: Seals at Seal Sands - bbc.co.uk

Music and movie downloads may have decimated demand for CDs and DVDs, and hence polycarbonate, but now a bright new world of cut-price discs is dawning.

UK discount retailer Poundland (everything for £1) has sold 4 million DVDs in the past 12 months, all at £1, according to an article in the Grocer but also in the Daily Mail.

Top sellers have been Shakespeare's Macbeth and King Lear, selling 12,000 in recent weeks, which the Blog is guessing is down to them being on some exam syllabus rather than a revival of the nation's cultural interest.

The cheap high street store is also selling "pre-owned but fully refurbished CDs under its Replay brand, enabling it to sell CDs by artists including Britney Spears, Girls Aloud and Westlife." 

James (Jim) McLiverty, former propylene trader with ConocoPhillips in the US, has joined Statoil, his industry contacts informed the Blog this week.

McLiverty is in the natural gas liquids (NGL) team in his new role, which he started a couple of months ago, they said.

Family roadtrips will be particularly joyful occasions this summer, with an inspired Esso promotion offering exclusive Lego vehicles with its petrol (gasoline).

On the long drive from London to Exeter this week, the Blog was thrilled to see banners at Esso stations along the fabled A303 showing the collection of six Lego toys.

Spending just €25 on fuel in July or August 2011 entitles you to buy a toy Lego kit for €1.75.

Passing through Frankfurt airport recently, site of the recent terrorist attack on US troops where two were killed, we were more concerned with finding the exit for Deutsche Bahn (DB), than watching out for signs of danger. In fact it was considerably later that the thought even entered my head.

Living in London, and regularly using railway stations and airports, we are constantly reminded that we are at risk. The current threat level is "substantial," meaning that a terrorist attack is "a strong possibility", and it is set to rise for next year's Olympics. But it is impossible to maintain a state of high alert.

At Heathrow we are no longer removing our shoes for the security checks. Coming back from EPL in Copenhagen, no-one batted an eye when a lipstick case deep in my handbag set off the scanner alarms.

It's good to be vigilant, but if we stop congregating, or going into city centres or travelling abroad, we will be handing victory to the bad guys.

(NB This posting was written before the Oslo attacks on 22 July 2011.)

What was it like? That was the first question facing reporters returning to the Singapore and London offices after the first ICIS conference at the renowned Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. More than the papers on chlor-alkali markets, everyone wanted to hear about the hotel. Was it fabulous? Did you go in the rooftop pool?

The smug answers were yes and yes. The only criticism they made was that it was a very long walk from the hotel rooms in the main hotel to the conference rooms in the linked convention centre. The wi-fi connection in the convention centre was so feeble that reporters had to make the 15-minute hike back to their rooms to file copy.

Another observation was that the attendance thinned out during the first afternoon, as some delegates disappeared to the pool for some more casual networking.

One UK-based trader said he'd chosen to stay instead at the new boutique-style Fullerton Bay Hotel, across the harbour from the Sands, where the rooftop poolside bar was less spectacular but less crowded with tourists.

Click here for news from the World Chlor-alkali Conference in Singapore - organised by ICIS and Tecnon OrbiChem, 23-24 June 2011

Photos by Oliver Palmer of RBI Conferences

Jaroslav (Jarek) Michniuk, formerly of BASF and Styrolution, has joined the Board of Selena FM SA in July 2011, he announced on LinkedIn today.

In his profile update, he describes the company as: "Globally acting Polish company dealing with chemical products for B&C (building and construction) industry. Headquartered in Wrocław, Poland, listed on Stock Exchange in Warsaw."

This completes the picture given in Styrolution Group's press release on 5 July 2011, about Jarek not joining the management board of the future Styrolution.

Jarek was one of the keynote speakers at the Blog's own 8^th European Aromatics & Derivatives Conference in Amsterdam in November 2009, when he spoke in his capacity as group vice president of BASF on "The Path Forward for Styrenic Polymers."

Giant daleks and iPads for kids are set to be this year's must-have Xmas toys, according to this FT article on retailers' predictions. These winners are jam-packed with plastics of various types, as parents and children opt for both techie and traditional toys. When money is tight, parents and grandparents plump for gifts with a touch of familiarity.

The Blog is also curious to see the new "dolls' house for boys" from the Early Learning Centre, which is modelled in the newspaper article by a particularly cool looking boy. More depressing is the news that: "For girls, the traditional dolls' house has had a makeover as a shopping mall, complete with shops, escalators and a cash machine."

The photography prize Prix Pictet will take the theme of "Power" this year, the chairman of the prize, Stephen Barber announced at Les Rencontres d'Arles in France this week.

The centrepiece was a multi-media presentation on the theme of "Growth" by the current Prix Pictet laureate, artist Mitch Epstein, of his series on energy production and consumption in the United States and its impact on the country's landscape, according to a full-page advert in the FT.

Photo 1: Mitch Epstein, BP Carson Refinery, California 2007, American Power, 2007

Photo 2: Mitch Epstein, Pica High School and Amos Plant

On checking out of a German hotel this week, we found that our corporate rate had entitled us to enjoy room upgrades, which included a free drink-all-you-can deal on the minibar.

"What, anything?" we asked in amazement.

Yes: alcohol, soft drinks, peanuts, Toblerones, the lot ...

But the trick is - you only hear of it too late, when you're checking out.

The training team knows no bounds, and now the traditional "Introduction to Petrochemicals" course is being delivered in Mandarin by our Shanghai, Guangzhou, Mumbai and Singapore-based trainers.

The first Chinese language course took place in Shanghai at the Interconti Pudong last week. The photo shows a group of delegates with Liu Xin and Roland (both Singapore) (far left) and Malini Hariharan (Mumbai), Ken Yin and Chris Qi (both Shanghai) (far right, front row.)

The Formula One Lotus Renault GP and Total racing car, as seen at the Grand Prix of Europe in Valencia and the Monaco Grand Prix, is sitting in the middle of the concourse in Heathrow Terminal 5, the Blog discovered while passing through check-in.

In addition to the car, there are two racing simulators and a Scalectrix-style Total Moon Race table-top track - enough to while away a happy half-hour, but you are not allowed to sit in the F1 car itself.

Simon Bos will work his last day as SABIC's European marketing and sales manager intermediates on 29 July. He will join Owens Corning, the world's largest glass fibre manufacturer, on 1 September as global account manager, based in the Benelux, he told Caroline today.

SABIC's European marketing and sales manager oxygenates, Klaus Neuhof, will take over Bos's role as of 1 August 2011, combining this role with the leadership of the intermediates sales team, the company informed business contacts by email today.

Fraud allegations by the Korea Customs Service against a company involved in the chemicals sector have prompted speculation among players, after an article in the Korean press, but who it is remains a mystery.

Musical prowess in the chemical industry tends to be focused on karaoke nights, but the Blog has recently heard that two petchem folk are involved with a real big band.

The Bokito Big Band is managed by Folkert B, and in this video of the band, you can make out Michiel B playing trumpet in the back row. The band was playing at the opening of the theatre season at the Koninklijke Schouwburg in Den Haag, on 4 September 2010.

The idea of using suitcases as props for an airport workout is anathema to this Blog. Committed to the concept of travelling light and getting to a comfortable chair as quickly as possible, the Blog is appalled to read about:

• The gorilla press - lifting a suitcase with both hands over your head then lowering it to the ground.
• The luggage lift - grab two suitcases, one on each side, bend knees and lift. Repeat.
• The step challenge - using a large chest suitcase as a step, climb on and off while carrying two small cases.

Jaroslaw Michniuk, designated Senior Vice President EMEA of the Styrolution Joint Venture and Gerhard Franken, designated Senior Vice President Styrene, will not join the Management Board of the future Styrolution, a press release from Styrolution Group GmbH announced on Tuesday 5 July 2011.

"Styrolution Group GmbH streamlines future Styrolution Management Board from six board members to five .... Responsibility for Styrene will be integrated in the regional business units. Martin Pugh, Managing Director Ineos Styrenics Europe, will take over responsibility for EMEA as member of the Management Board upon closing."

David Cartwright will start a new position with global trading company Zug-based Kolmar on Monday 4 July he told Nel today.

David, previously the Butadiene/C4s man at INEOS, will be overseeing Kolmar's global olefins activities.