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• Jokes and the financial crash - what goes around, comes around

  The Blog's Japanese joke from Friday has been picked up in the Times today, my fellow blogger Paul emails me from the train to Brussels this morning to let me know. Fair enough - I've referenced a few Times articles myself, as readers will know... Posted Oct 14 2008, 01:35 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trading, gossip, Markets, ICIS, price reporting, corporate life, Times, jokes

• Worse than divorce

  "This is worse than a divorce. I've lost half my net worth and I still have a wife," said one shell-shocked share trader at the end of the worst day on the stock market for twenty years. This line came in to me from the US via yahoo messenger... Posted Oct 11 2008, 04:20 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trading, gossip, ICIS, corporate life, traders, media life, Times, divorce

• New US benzene broker TnS links with PCB

  Two emails dropped into the Blog inbox this morning announcing the launch of TnS (Trade n Services), a new US benzene broker in the person of Aruanan Mastenbroek. He will be covering the US and co-operating with Wim Buiter of PCB (Petrochemical Brokerage... Posted Oct 01 2008, 09:04 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: conferences, trading, gossip, EPCA, Houston, PCB, Antwerp, TnS

• EPCA youth report

  It may be true that the chemical industry fails to attract a young crowd, but the EPCA youth chapter was out and about in Monte Carlo this week with the enthusiasm of those who can look daisy-fresh on three hours' sleep. Some old favourite venues... Posted Sep 29 2008, 11:07 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: conferences, gossip, EPCA, Monaco, Monte Carlo, Jimmy'z, McCarthy's, youth, Zebra Square, SAS Bar

• Darkness and neglect at Le Balmoral

  On the way to dinner at Le Saint-Benoit, we pass the dark and shuttered hulk of the former Balmoral Hotel, looming darkly over the bay. This was a haven to past generations from Shell, Integra and then ICIS, famed for its 1950s wallpaper and candlewick... Posted Sep 29 2008, 11:04 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: conferences, gossip, ICIS, EPCA, Shell, Monaco, Monte Carlo, Hotel de Paris, Integra, Le Balmoral

• EPCA to become "more exclusive"

  One rumour going the rounds at EPCA on Monday was that after the recent merging of the Annual Meeting and the Distribution conference, there was a feeling amongst the EPCA's board members that the event had become too large. According to one well... Posted Sep 29 2008, 11:00 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: conferences, gossip, EPCA, Monaco, Monte Carlo, IPCA

• The Monte Carlo years are over

  So it looks like it's true. As the Blog reported here in June, EPCA is to abandon Monte Carlo, never to return. Next year it's in Berlin, and in 2010 it's Vienna, and after that it will not be coming back, one board member told industry players... Posted Sep 29 2008, 01:38 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: business travel, conferences, gossip, EPCA, Vienna, Monaco, Berlin, Monte Carlo

• Going, going, gone - Disappearing Traders

  Where are they now? The conversation on the balcony at one EPCA function last night turned to the traders who have disappeared from the industry in the last year or two. Out came the amusing anecdotes about the circumstances of their departure, and even... Posted Sep 29 2008, 10:02 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: chemicals, parties, trading, gossip, brokers, traders

• Buried treasure unearthed at EPCA

  I heard a tale at a cocktail party last night that had the listeners agog. It seems that one senior trader recently left his company in a bit of hurry, and without troubling to clear his desk. It was not clear whether he had left of his own accord or... Posted Sep 28 2008, 09:45 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trading, gossip, EPCA, desks, scandal

• The Blog celebrates its first birthday - a year of chemicals gossip

  The ICIS Chemicals Confidential blog is today celebrating its first birthday. Born in the maelstrom of the Reed Charity Blogathon on 24 September 2007, it has grown unexpectedly strong and bonny, boasting 257 postings over the course of its first year... Posted Sep 24 2008, 08:56 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trivia, gossip, ICIS, price reporting, blog, corporate life, media life, blogathon, birthday

• From chemicals to movies

  Len Blavatnik of Access Industries, owner of LyondellBasell, and a major player in Russian TNK-BP amongst other things, is going into the movie business, according to articles in the Sunday Times and on Hollywood blogs . Stadium Entertainment, of which... Posted Sep 22 2008, 02:15 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trivia, movies, gossip, media life, Len Blavatnik, LyondellBasell, Mel Gibson, Access Industries, Dances with Wolves

• Ryder Cup players are model for petchems

  Watching the opening of the Ryder Cup , which kicks off today in Kentucky, sets me wondering about golf and chemicals. Why is golf the sport of the international petrochemical industry? Even as EPCA has axed the Sunday sailing competition this year, and... Posted Sep 19 2008, 01:13 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trivia, fashion, gossip, ICIS, EPCA, Ineos, corporate life, ExxonMobil, golf, women, Ryder Cup, Intermarc

• Sleepless in Seattle

  Seattle, Washington, USA was the venue for the big fertilizer conference of The Fertilizer Institute ( TFI ) last week, and three of the ICIS fertilizer team made the long trip there from Houston and London. A trip memorable for its coffee and the unusual... Posted Sep 15 2008, 06:05 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: conferences, gossip, ICIS, seattle, TFI

• Chemical Spam with an S

  My Houston colleague Stephen B shows me a curious spam email which has landed in his inbox. Advertising a Chinese online store, nothing unusual there, it shows a distribution list of 40 names beginning with an S, including Stephen himself, many of whom... Posted Sep 12 2008, 07:01 PM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: chemicals, gossip, hi-tech, stephane, steve, stephen, email, spam

• Have suit, will travel

  "I suppose I'd better get my suit out for EPCA," said one US petrochemical conference veteran on the phone to me yesterday. "It's all casual for US conferences, unless you're giving a presentation." What a sartorial gulf... Posted Sep 09 2008, 08:52 AM by ICIS Chemicals Confidential Filed under: trivia, fashion, conferences, gossip, EPCA, Conference, Berlin, Monte Carlo, casual dress, suits, Air France