May 2009 - ICIS Blogs

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April green chemicals

A record-breaking product launch last month for chemicals that are purportedly eco-friendly, green, sustainable (etc) maybe in celebration of earth week? There were lots of twittering this week about green washing and growing skepticism on "green"...

Published 1 May 2009 15:33 by Green Chemicals

Filed under: Products, cosmetic, plastic, solvent, enzymes, coatings, emulsifier, plasticizer, additives, arsenic
Adam Lambert tipped by Asian chemicals guru

Dog bites man - who cares? But man bites dog, now that's news. It's an old gag, but that's what I thought when I read an email yesterday from my friend John R, our Asian economics guru and director of ICIS insight Asia , with a link to his...

Published 1 May 2009 9:18 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: trivia, YouTube, American Idol, Adam Lambert, ICIS insight Asia, John Richardson
Quick updates

Chrysler. Yesterday, Chrysler entered bankruptcy . The hope is that this can be a "quick visit", lasting perhaps 30-60 days. But even if this can be achieved, there is little doubt that Chrysler's suppliers will suffer major write-offs Read...

Published 1 May 2009 11:46 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Japan, Financial Events, M & A, Leverage, Federal Reserve, Chrysler, Citigroup
California looks at emissions from crop to tail pipe and legislates

California's newly adopted low-carbon fuel standard may mark the beginning of the end of ethanol, according to a report on Planet Ark. The new legislation examines the carbon impact from seed to tailpipe, which seems sensible. Read More...

Published 1 May 2009 13:16 by The Big Biofuels Blog

Filed under: America, USA, US, ethanol, Policy, biofuel, biofuels, Environment, carbon, California
Texas tornadoes play havoc with ICIS cyclists

A team from ICIS Houston tackled an epic journey on two wheels across central Texas last week, but there was more than a bit of drama along the way. Stephen Burns, Angela Garzon, Ron Marshall, Heather Doyle, Landon Feller and Steven McGinn, plus Fred...

Published 1 May 2009 13:03 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: Texas, ICB, Houston, Reed Elsevier, corporate life, Climate, ICIS Houston
Floggers: high spirits despite downturn and health scare

It may turn out that the timing of Floggers was fortunate, because although everyone was joking about swine flu, they were still hugging and (social) kissing with abandon, and no-one had yet started to think about avoiding mass gatherings . Particularly...

Published 1 May 2009 15:07 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: trivia, business travel, gossip, CBA, Floggers, Ann Widdecombe, Gurkhas, Grovenor House
Chrysler's bankruptcy marks dawn of new reality

The International eChem team are very experienced in turnarounds and restructurings. We have undertaken these both as employees within our former companies, and then as advisers. This has taught us to be alert for the 'tipping point', when a situation...

Published 3 May 2009 7:34 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Financial Events, M & A, Leverage, bankruptcy, Chrysler, GM, polymers
Green reading on the plane

Wherever you go there is definitely no escaping the growing media attention on green. On the way to Orlando, I picked up Delta's Sky magazine (May 2009 issue) and lo and behold, two top green stories, one about their top 10 Eco Resorts and the other...

Published 4 May 2009 16:10 by Green Chemicals

Filed under: biofuel, Biotechnology, General, plastic bottle, resorts
Tesco cuts 1.8bn plastic bags a year

The combination of consumer environmentalism with retailer cost-cutting is having the expected major impact on the UK's use of plastic bags . All the big supermarkets have been running campaigns to reduce the use of these. Some, like Marks & Spencer...

Published 4 May 2009 5:41 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's
US-Asia Propylene arbitrage closes

As flagged up on this blog last week, ICIS news has confirmed that the US-Asia propylene arbitrage has shut following a rise in US domestic refinery-grade C3 prices. This could be good news if West-East arbitrage in general becomes more difficult. During...

Published 4 May 2009 10:07 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: US, Olefins, Polyolefins, ICIS news, financial meltdown, piracy, US-Asia exports, arbitrage, Somalia
Bank holiday at the movies

The cinema was more crowded than I'd ever seen it on Monday. Three screens were showing the new "X-Men Origins - Wolverine" and two had Nigel's favourite "Hannah Montana", so there were groups of teens, mums with parties of...

Published 5 May 2009 9:54 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: blogs, news, movies, cinema, films, Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren
New soy-based industrial projects

The United Soybean Board (USB) gave me an update during the #AOCS meeting about new industrial projects (and a long list at that) on soy-based development as of April 2009. In plastics category, there are about 28 projects; 7 in lubricants and solvents;...

Published 5 May 2009 15:33 by Green Chemicals

Filed under: ICB, Oils, soybean, USB, fats, industrial use
Rotterdam is full

Rotterdam 's chemical storage tanks were already full at the beginning of the year, a Vopak executive told me at the ICIS Baseoils conference in February, and now Europe's largest port is running out of space to store crude oil. Plunging demand...

Published 5 May 2009 9:40 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: Oil, trading, shipping, crude, ports, Rotterdam, oil products
Vast island of plastic floats in mid-Pacific

A revolting mass of six million tonnes of discarded plastic is spinning slowly on its own axis in a patch of the northeastern Pacific, roughly twice the size of Texas, according to the leader and a two-page article in Saturday's Times. Now Project...

Published 5 May 2009 9:20 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: Environment, Texas, plastics, plastic bags, Climate, Pacific
EU sees 11% jobless; US banks raise interest rates

The European Commission has again reduced its growth forecast for the EU. It now sees a 4% decline in GDP this year, and for the first time is suggesting that recovery will be delayed until mid-2010. As a result, it expects unemployment to reach 11%,...

Published 6 May 2009 0:23 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: EU, Economic growth, M & A, Leverage, Federal Reserve, unemployment

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May 2009 - ICIS Blogs

Syndication

Recent Posts

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April green chemicals

Adam Lambert tipped by Asian chemicals guru

Quick updates

California looks at emissions from crop to tail pipe and legislates

Texas tornadoes play havoc with ICIS cyclists

Floggers: high spirits despite downturn and health scare

Chrysler's bankruptcy marks dawn of new reality

Green reading on the plane

Tesco cuts 1.8bn plastic bags a year

US-Asia Propylene arbitrage closes

Bank holiday at the movies

New soy-based industrial projects

Rotterdam is full

Vast island of plastic floats in mid-Pacific

EU sees 11% jobless; US banks raise interest rates