January 2009 - ICIS Blogs

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IMF warns on recession's "social consequences"

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, MD of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has a surprisingly hard-hitting interview today in Bloomberg. Casting aside normal central bank reticence he warns: • Their current $1.4 trillion forecast of global financial losses...

Published 12 Jan 2009 10:14 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Financial Events, credit crunch, M & A, Leverage, recession, IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, social unrest, financial stability
INEOS announce €1bn inventory loss in Q4

In early October , I forecast that we were about to revisit "the scariest moment of my 30 year chemical career", adding that: "The moment the blog has long feared, and warned about , may be about to arrive. It appears that we may be about...

Published 25 Jan 2009 17:14 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Financial Events, housing, credit crunch, Futures trading, Leverage, recession, crude oil prices, Ineos, auto sales, polymers, LyondellBasell
Emami Biotech in commercial jatropha biofuel production

Emami Biotech is using Jatropha in commercial jatropha biofuel production according to the Bioenergy site. If this is the case, and the report is a little garbled, then could it be the first commercial application of that technology? Read More...

Published 16 Jan 2009 15:12 by The Big Biofuels Blog

Filed under: Agriculture, Biodiesel, India, Jatropha, Biotech, Emami, Halida
INEOS, Georgia Gulf, Chemtura bond prices plunge

Bond markets are a good place to look if you want to understand the outlook for major companies in the chemical industry. A key market is in 'credit default swaps' (CDS), which offer insurance against the possibility that a company might default...

Published 20 Jan 2009 15:47 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Financial Events, housing, M & A, Leverage, recession, Ineos, credit derivatives, CDs, Chemtura, Georgia Gulf
Most economic forecasts are too optimistic

Prof David Blanchflower, of the Bank of England, is not optimistic that the current recession will end soon . He notes that "few macro-economists actually spotted the greatest financial crisis in a hundred years". And in the chart above, showing...

Published 31 Jan 2009 18:30 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Financial Events, Bank of England, M & A, Leverage, recession, OECD, Prof David Blanchflower
Cramer hits at Dow's Liveris

The credibility of some chemical industry CEO's seems to be under increasing attack, due to their apparent failure to develop proper contingency plans in advance of the current recession. One example this week comes from the USA, where Jim Cramer...

Published 31 Jan 2009 17:53 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Financial Events, M & A, Leverage, recession, Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical, Jim Cramer
Spandex to the aid of real-life Superheroes

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Published 2 Jan 2009 13:57 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: chemicals, trivia, media life, lingerie, MEG, glycol, Lycra, swimsuits, superheroes, World Superhero Registry, spandex, Invista
Koebbe joins Kolmar Americas to trade olefins

Gary Koebbe has joined Kolmar Americas, Inc as a trader for olefins and liquid petroleum gas (LPG), the company announced on Tuesday. The appointment was effective from 1 January 2009. Koebbe was previously president of Trammochem in Connecticut, US....

Published 27 Jan 2009 16:45 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: trading, Olefins, traders, Kolmar, Trammochem
NPRA 2009 attendance expected down

Word on the street is that 2009 attendance at the major US petrochemical conference is set to be significantly reduced in these straightened times from that of previous years. One well-connected friend in Houston tells me she has been "reliably informed"...

Published 23 Jan 2009 16:26 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: Texas, conferences, Houston, NPRA, San Antonio, golf, Alan Greenspan, Mikhail Gorbachev, IPC, Tony Blair
Europe's gas pipelines

For anyone interested in natural gas, this is a great map of European gas movements , including production, consumption and transit figures for each country, in the FT today. Read More...

Published 9 Jan 2009 10:19 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: chemicals, natural gas, Maps, FT
Barack Obama's Lego inauguration

Legoland California is featuring a Lego version of Barack Obama's inauguration. The Blog has already revealed itself to be heavily pro-Lego (the supreme petrochemical toy), and indeed has crates of the stuff including its younger playmate Duplo stored...

Published 19 Jan 2009 7:00 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: USA, trivia, Washington, Barack Obama, Lego, Legoland, inauguration
Top Chemical Adverts No. 6 - BP at Heathrow

I've just seen these BP billboard ads all over London's Heathrow airport. Click here to view the campaign. It seems that the campaign has also won Greenpeace's Emerald Paintbrush Award , and that Greenpeace has created its own spoof advert...

Published 27 Jan 2009 7:02 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: biofuels, Oil, London, BP, gossip, Greenpeace, gas, solar, Heathrow, wind, energy, media life
Dow Chemical moves to Plan B

A month ago, after the collapse of the K-Dow deal, the blog suggested that Dow would need to quickly move to a Plan B . It added that "nobody would be very surprised if it now sought to renegotiate the proposed Rohm & Haas acquisition"....

Published 28 Jan 2009 10:53 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Financial Events, M & A, Leverage, Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical, global downturn, Rohm & Haas
Crude oil trading hits new record

The ever-interesting PetroMatrix report notes that 2008 saw record volumes of crude oil trading. As their chart shows (above), the volume of trading on futures markets in 1995 was equal to daily oil production volumes. By 2000, the ratio had reached 2...

Published 13 Jan 2009 5:32 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Futures trading, crude oil prices, speculation, Petromatrix
K-Dow, LyondellBasell, Akzo - big breaking news in last days of 2008

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Published 2 Jan 2009 11:49 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: chemicals, ICIS news, corporate life, LyondellBasell, Dow, K-Dow, Akzo, LII

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January 2009 - ICIS Blogs

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IMF warns on recession's "social consequences"

INEOS announce €1bn inventory loss in Q4

Emami Biotech in commercial jatropha biofuel production

INEOS, Georgia Gulf, Chemtura bond prices plunge

Most economic forecasts are too optimistic

Cramer hits at Dow's Liveris

Spandex to the aid of real-life Superheroes

Koebbe joins Kolmar Americas to trade olefins

NPRA 2009 attendance expected down

Europe's gas pipelines

Barack Obama's Lego inauguration

Top Chemical Adverts No. 6 - BP at Heathrow

Dow Chemical moves to Plan B

Crude oil trading hits new record

K-Dow, LyondellBasell, Akzo - big breaking news in last days of 2008