Chemical industry conversations

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

Globiter — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:51:55 GMT

The focus has shifted away from rescue to recovery and increasingly reconstruction. ICIS news is still covering this terrible disaster. http://www.icis.com/Articles/2008/05/20/9125134/Sichuans-industries-face-10bn-loss-post-quake.html

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

Tobias Smollet — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:25:58 GMT

What's happening now?

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

sw1 — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:13:21 GMT

It was updated every few hours after the earthquake until 15th May

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

Carothers — Tue, 20 May 2008 09:27:01 GMT

HI SW1 that’s useful information how often is it being updated?

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

sw1 — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:44:28 GMT

Chemease Earthquake Disaster Real-time Report

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

Carothers — Mon, 19 May 2008 13:11:04 GMT

It looks like Chinese chemical firms are struggling to restart production. Has anyone got any data on how much capacity has been lost, and when we're likely to get 50% of that capacity back on line?

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

tiantanlong — Sun, 18 May 2008 07:53:12 GMT

I agree with totally!

We cover chemicals,but it's better when readers could learn the chemcals they could also know what happened in China in the meantime!

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

tiantanlong — Sun, 18 May 2008 07:29:27 GMT

exactly, This year seems not a good year for China!

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

tiantanlong — Sun, 18 May 2008 06:24:00 GMT

why would damage....?I don't think so .Though we are not faster than Reuters, Bloombergs, Xinhua news, we should still cover. We not only focused on the affected chemical industry, we also focused from human angle. How do our customers think if ICIS news only cover whicih plant was shut down, price change without any infomation about the earthquake? just my opinion.

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

Widmerpool — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:31:04 GMT

For a specialist service like ICIS news to try to cover general news stories "for the record" would damage the quality of our coverage, replacing the focussed, dedicated content that our customers pay for, with weak general news stories. It would feel like tokenism to me. It's not a reflection of a lack of heart , just clarity on what we are here to do.

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

Chemical Dependent — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:09:04 GMT

I agree with Casablanca, that "at least some coverage" is warranted, to at least have it on the record. (Maybe next time you'll get noticed, Myanmar!) Beyond the basic descriptions, though, what is ICIS doing other than relaying what other media are doing much earlier and more comprehensively? Is creating that fig leaf really necessary for the collective conscience to be able to carry through with the core assignment? And is it time well spent for ICIS subscribers? Would not it be best to provide the specialised coverage ICIS exists to provide?

Hurrican season coming up in the US Gulf...hmm, a reminder that the human interest angle was not important when it was a case of American bodies floating through the streets of New Orleans. Status of a cracker in Lake Charles or a refinery in Pascagoula was, though. And appropriately so.

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

Carothers — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:50:28 GMT

Talking of film footage, has anyone got any pictures of sites that are not damaged/damaged in the earthquake? You can post them to the photos part of the forum.

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

Casablanca — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:03:07 GMT

Fine, the day-to-day focus and purpose of ICIS news is the international business of the chemicals, resins and energy industries. But ICIS news is, after all, a "news" service, so I don't see how it can avoid providing at least some coverage of major events that is not necessarily industry specific or focused. After all, ICIS news provided very timely and extensive coverage of the London tube bombings on July 7th, 2005, eh? No chemical angle in many of those stories. ICIS news also provided some basic but timely coverage of the unsuccessful effort to impeach then president Bill Clinton in late 1998. No chemical angle there. In the case of such major general news events, can any news service with a pretense of global, real-time coverage afford to ignore the event simply because it lacks an incustry-specific angle? Taken to its extreme, such an attitude is not unlike the oft-derided policy of much television coverage over the past half century; if a TV network or local station did not have film footage to air on a story, they just didn't do the story, period.

Re: The Chinese earthquake May 2008

Chemical Dependent — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:26:39 GMT

Yes, you and the rest of the world are missing coverage of the Myanmar cyclone. There isn't any.

Donate to help victims of China's earth quake and Myanmar cyclone

Carothers — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:11:01 GMT

If, like me, you're feeling overwhelmed in the face of all of these disasters and want to make a donation to the rescue attempts in the Chinese Earthquake and the Burmese/Myanmar cyclone follow this link to the British Red Cross and chose the place you want to make a donation to from the drop down on the page; or,

Click here to donate to Medicens Sans Frontiers, which are operating in China and Myanmar; or,

Click here to donate to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which is raisig money for Burmese/Myanmar cyclone relief; or,

Click here to donate to the American Red Cross Society. This is a link to a general disaster donations page, if you want to make a specific donation to either the Chinese or Burma/Myanmar disaster phone (in the US 1-800-HELP-NOW) and tell them where you'd like your donation to go.