Europe top stories: weekly summary

LONDON (ICIS)–Here are some of the top stories from ICIS Europe for the week ended 8 June.

Bayer to close Monsanto acquisition this week
Bayer expects to close the acquisition of US-based Monsanto this week and is set to retire the company name, the Germany-headquartered chemicals producer said.

Borealis invests €15m in German recycling firm mtm plastics
Borealis has invested €15m in mtm plastics, a Germany-based post-consumer waste recycling technology firm it acquired in mid-2016, to ramp up its processing capacity, the Austria-headquartered petrochemicals and fertilizers producer said.

Ireland’s chems wary but ready to take advantage of Brexit – trade group
Ireland is ready to take advantage of Brexit as it hopes to entice chemical and pharmachem companies to the island once the UK leaves the EU, according to the director of BioPharmaChem Ireland.

Austrian packaging firm ALPLA admonishes EU’s single-use plastics proposition
Austrian packaging solutions firm ALPLA have criticised proposed EU legislation on single use plastics, saying that banning individual products threatens the European Circular Economy Action Plan in its entirety.

EU chemicals loses momentum in first quarter – Cefic
EU chemicals sector output rose year on year in the first three months of 2018 but lost momentum as the general European economy cools, according to trade group Cefic.

UK project gets £3m funding for recycling research in Scotland
Scotland’s ‘Project Beacon’ has secured £3m funding –  £1.7m coming from public sector – to research ways of recycling plastics in the UK nation, its promoters said.

Europe PET price soars 30% in first five months of 2018 on unprecedented tightness
The European polyethylene terephthalate (PET) price market has jumped around 30% in the first five months of 2018 due to unprecedented tightness, sources said.

European Commission inspects styrene monomer purchasing firms suspected of antitrust breaches
The European Commission has carried out unannounced inspections on companies in the styrene monomer purchasing sector on suspicion they may have breached EU antitrust regulations, it said.

UK’s Synthomer inspected in EU styrene monomer antitrust probe
Synthomer was one of the companies inspected by the European Commission in its investigation into antitrust breaches by styrene monomer purchasing firms, a spokesperson for the UK chemical producer told ICIS.