By John Richardson IF YOU had conducted a snap survey of horse and cart manufacturers during New York’s Easter Parade in 1900, I am sure that hardly any of them would have foreseen that 12 years later their businesses would have all but disappeared. Photos show that during the Easter Parade in 2011 automobiles had […]
Asian Chemical Connections
G7 Meeting And The Risks For US Polyethylene Producers
By John Richardson IN All the noise, confusion and economic anxiety following last weekend’s very acrimonious G7 meeting in Canada, you might have failed to notice one very significant detail for the polymers industry. This was the refusal by the US and Japan to sign a plastics charter put forward by Canadian Prime Minister, Justin […]
Plastic Rubbish Crisis: No More Business As Usual For Polymers
By John Richardson DO NOT underestimate the ability of public opinion to reshape markets. That’s my first warning to any polymers industry executive out there who thinks future success will come from a business as usual approach. Public anger at the environmental damage being caused by today’s approach to disposing of single-use plastics is going […]
Is China getting serious?
By Malini Hariharan The Chinese government’s position on environmental safety has always been difficult to read. The official position for the last few years has been to reduce pollution by closing down old factories and forcing companies to invest in new technologies. But implementation has been sketchy as other priorities such as preserving jobs or […]
Thailand’s Map Ta Phut crisis – the NGO side of the story
By Malini Hariharan Penchom Saetang of Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand (Earth) is not a typical activist vociferously denouncing companies for their environmental misdeeds. She is soft spoken and rational in her criticism of the state of affairs at Map Ta Phut, Thailand’s premier industrial zone and a major petrochemicals hub. After spending over […]
Map Ta Phut work stops but no clarity on when crisis will be resolved.
By Malini Hariharan Companies executing projects at Map Ta Phut in Thailand have finally received a notice from the government to stop construction work. The notice comes after the Thai Supreme court’s ruling in early December to suspend 65 projects on environmental concerns. Mitsubishi Rayon has confirmed it has stopped work at its 90,000 tonnes/year […]
Another Opinion: China and Recycling
Source of Picture: The Earth Institute at Columbia University I was speaking to a Singapore-based trader this morning over the reasons behind the polyolefin price rally. PPPEPrices2006-Aug09.ppt Here are his views: “A maor factor has been a lack of availability of recycled material. This is because people in the West are buying less durable consumer […]
The Chemical Industry Blame Game
Produce too little energy over the next 35 years, says the International Energy Agency in this article from the Guardian Weekly, and there will be price hikes and a financial crash; produce too much and the increased rate of global warming will also result in economic disaster. The rest of the article leaves you with […]
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