June 2009 - ICIS Blogs

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China's plastic bag ban cuts usage by 66%

A year ago today, China banned the issue of free plastic bags from supermarkets, shops and open markets. And it seems the ban has had considerable success. Supermarkets have used 66% fewer bags, according to government figures . The ban has saved 1.6m...

Published 1 Jun 2009 6:33 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: China, Wal-Mart, polyethylene, polymers
An Affair To Remember

Source:Amazon.com I remain perplexed by the direction of chemicals, oil and commodity markets over the last few months - and now I understand the reason why. It's not about feedstock, it's not about inventory levels or what end-use demand is really...

Published 1 Jun 2009 13:42 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: China, oil prices, Business, Oil & Gas, Naphtha & other feedstocks, Financial Times, International eChem, market sentiment, illlicit encounters, paralysis by analysis
APIC 2010 in Mumbai - the grumbles begin

The Blog's Asian colleagues tell me that participants at APIC in Seoul in May were not happy about next year's conference being held in Mumbai. Delegates from South Korea and Japan had been saying that they had security concerns about Mumbai in...

Published 1 Jun 2009 15:12 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: India, conferences, Japan, Singapore, Mumbai, Korea, APIC
View the inside of a Shanghai police station

Shanghai is still one of the most popular destinations for conferences, but to counter-balance the Blog's usually euphoric postings about the city, the ICIS fertilizer team found the city dirty and polluted, with the Bund turned into a massive construction...

Published 1 Jun 2009 15:24 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: conferences, gossip
Celebrities in Chemicals

Bowing to popular pressure, the Blog today launched a new category: " Celebrities in Chemicals ," which has gathered together recent postings on: Park Ji Sung (May) Kim Jong Il (May) Vivienne Westwood (May) Adam Lambert (May) Mikhail Gorbachev...

Published 1 Jun 2009 20:55 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: politics, fashion, movies, football, films, American Idol, celebrities, soccer, stars, celebs in chemicals, celebs
May's top posts

The 3 most popular posts in May were: Dow, Ineos focus on debt issues Rotterdam oil storage running out of space Green shoots likely to be yellow weeds The blog will be celebrating its 2nd birthday at the end of the month. I would welcome your comments...

Published 2 Jun 2009 10:38 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Financial Events, Futures trading, M & A, Leverage
Anger boils over in Helsinki

Just back from Helsinki from the European Chemicals Agency's ( ECHA ) stakeholder day, my colleague Will Beacham tells me that chemical industry delegates were just boiling over with anger at the inaccessibility of the agency, and had set aside 45...

Published 2 Jun 2009 11:17 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: chemicals, conferences, Reach, Finland, Helsinki, ECHA
Molecules with Silly Names

Some of the chemical names here are SO cheeky that it is hard to believe they are genuine. Molecules like Arsole, Bastardane, Unununium, Moronic Acid, Dickite, Fucitol and Windowpane . Can they be for real? H aving checked them with my colleague Alex...

Published 2 Jun 2009 13:06 by ICIS Chemicals Confidential

Filed under: chemicals, trivia, University of Bristol School of Chemistry, molecules
Can Reach be ignored?

If it is any consolation, Indian companies are not the only ones frustrated by Reach , the new regulation relating to registration and sale of chemicals in the EU. The mood at the European Chemicals Agency's ( ECHA ) Second Stakeholder Day in Helsinki...

Published 2 Jun 2009 13:22 by India Chemicals Blog

Filed under: EU, Europe, Reach, ECHA, SIEF
Markets in Wonderland

"Sometimes, I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast" said the Queen in Lewis Carroll's famous book, 'Alice in Wonderland' Today would have been a good day for her to practise this ability, as she read...

Published 2 Jun 2009 14:41 by Chemicals & The Economy

Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Financial Events, Leverage, recession, crude oil prices, IEA, S Korea, Lyondell, Alice in Wonderland, Alastair Darling
China's plastic bag use down after ban

ICIS co-blogger Paul Hodges of the Chemicals & The Economy blog reported about this article from China Daily stating that after a year of plastic bag ban in China (which started on June 1, 2008), supermarkets cut their plastic bag use by 66%. Statistics...

Published 2 Jun 2009 18:11 by Green Chemicals

Filed under: China, Regulation, Government, plastic bag, ban
May green chemicals

Green chemical development heats up in May with new product launch announcements emailed to me. Do they deserve to be in the green chemical category or not? 1. Low VOC construction chems - Specialty product manufacturer RectorSeal® has added Low-VOC Read...

Published 2 Jun 2009 17:33 by Green Chemicals

Filed under: construction, plastics, Products, batteries, fuel additive, flavors, fluids, aerosol
NAMPA BPA meeting leaked

This has been going around the twittering world (in my twittering world anyway) which led to various outraged comments and further cynicism from various environmental/health advocates on bisphenol- A's (BPA) supposed safety as according to BPA manufacturers...

Published 2 Jun 2009 22:06 by Green Chemicals

Filed under: Regulation, Company initiatives, General, safety, advocates, media, BPA, NAMPA
Gov't should stop deforestation - Unilever

Consumer goods producer Unilever said governments especially in Southeast Asia particularly Indonesia should call for a moratorium on deforestation of tropical rainforest. Unilever CEO Paul Polman said the destruction of the world's tropical rainforests...

Published 2 Jun 2009 22:55 by Green Chemicals

Filed under: Indonesia, Company initiatives, Government, palm oil, unilever, deforestation
China borrowing from the future?

It's easy to get caught up in the excitement over the rebound in the Chinese economy and miss underlying weaknesses which point to some major problems ahead. To some extent, in a desperate effort to compensate for collapsing export trade, China might...

Published 3 Jun 2009 13:16 by Asian Chemical Connections

Filed under: US, China, Europe, Polyolefins, Business, Deutsche Bank, Company Strategy, China Economic Quarterly, commodity chemicals, iron ore, copper, China economic stimulus, non-performing loans crisis

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June 2009 - ICIS Blogs

Syndication

Recent Posts

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Archives

China's plastic bag ban cuts usage by 66%

An Affair To Remember

APIC 2010 in Mumbai - the grumbles begin

View the inside of a Shanghai police station

Celebrities in Chemicals

May's top posts

Anger boils over in Helsinki

Molecules with Silly Names

Can Reach be ignored?

Markets in Wonderland

China's plastic bag use down after ban

May green chemicals

NAMPA BPA meeting leaked

Gov't should stop deforestation - Unilever

China borrowing from the future?