ICIS Blogs : speciality chemicals

More changes at Jubilant?

India Chemicals Blog — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:36:51 GMT

Jubilant Organosys appears to be taking one more step in transforming itself into a pharmaceutical company. The company is looking at selling its industrial and performance products division and expects to realise Rs3.0-3.5bn from the sale, says this...(read more)

Students still love IT

India Chemicals Blog — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:08:01 GMT

Indian information technology (IT) companies may no longer be queuing up at campuses for fresh graduates but engineering students continue to rank this sector above all others, according to the latest Nielsen Campus Track T-Schools study . Chemicals,...(read more)

Will a new broom sweep clean?

India Chemicals Blog — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:23:21 GMT

It is good to be back to some good news. The election is finally over and the UPA has been voted back to power with promises of stability and more reforms. But the chemicals industry will have to deal with a new minister as Ram Vilas Paswan was not be...(read more)

Reason to cheer

India Chemicals Blog — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:48:33 GMT

This post is for all my Indian friends who still have their jobs. ECA International expects India to see an average salary increase of around 10.8% this year, down from the double-digit growth seen in the last few years but still the highest in Asia Pacific...(read more)

Confronting China

India Chemicals Blog — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:00:13 GMT

It's the turn of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to highlight the threat of cheap Chinese imports . "The threat of dumping of cheap Chinese products in India is real and serious," says Venu Srinivasan, the new president of the...(read more)

Self-preservation first

India Chemicals Blog — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:23:06 GMT

India is aggressively moving to protect domestic companies with more news trickling in on safeguard and antidumping duties. The government is planning to initiate safeguard duty investigations on Chinese imports of 12-13 products from the chemicals and...(read more)

Let's talk about demand

India Chemicals Blog — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:24:55 GMT

The Indian government is reportedly planning a stimulus package for chemicals. But I don't think this can be called a stimulus package as the proposals seem to be mainly about tariff reduction. The department of chemicals and petrochemicals is once...(read more)

Fading prospects for dyes and textiles

India Chemicals Blog — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:30:57 GMT

Yet another sector is suffering from of the global economic turmoil. The export-dependent dyestuff industry is projecting nil growth this year, down from 20% in 2008, says this report . Export orders have fallen by 50% in the last four months for this...(read more)

New year ushers in new problems

India Chemicals Blog — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:26:44 GMT

December closed with ominous signs for the industry. Dow Chemical's proposed commodity petrochemicals joint venture with Petrochemical Industries Co (PIC) was scrapped after strong protests f rom Kuwaiti opposition leaders who believed that the deal...(read more)

Looking beyond today's crisis

India Chemicals Blog — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:32:59 GMT

It has been a few weeks since my last post and market conditions have only worsened. The business outlook has grown bleaker as recession looms over much of the developed world and GDP growth rates in China and India have been trimmed. Chemical companies...(read more)

No immunity from credit crisis

India Chemicals Blog — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:26:01 GMT

There is no way that Indian chemical companies can escape from the global financial crisis. Tough times lie ahead as companies will be hit on all fronts - high cost of credit, falling demand as the global economy slows down and increased supply once new...(read more)

FTA woes

India Chemicals Blog — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:07:24 GMT

India and Asean are all set to implement an FTA (free trade agreement) from 1 January 2008. Both sides completed six years of negotiations yesterday and a final agreement is due to be signed in December this year. Over 400 products are on the sensitive...(read more)

Dow jv hits a roadblock

India Chemicals Blog — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:16:44 GMT

India's Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has deferred making a decision on a proposed chloromethanes joint venture between a subsidiary of Dow Chemical and Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd (GACL) as the government would like more time 'to...(read more)

Time to wake up to climate change

India Chemicals Blog — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:13:15 GMT

India is known to move slowly. So it is perhaps not surprising to read that most local companies have yet to formulate strategies to face the challenge of climate change. KPMG recently released a report on a study carried out earlier this year to understand...(read more)

Change is in the air

India Chemicals Blog — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:34:34 GMT

Chinks in the Chinese textile and clothing export machine have started showing with shipments to the US in the first quarter of this year declining by nearly 10% from the same period in 2007. A new report from Textiles Intelligence states that the country...(read more)