Europe top stories: weekly summary

LONDON (ICIS)–Here are some of the top stories from ICIS Europe for the week ended 20 September 2019.

EU Commission to classify inhalable powder TiO2 as carcinogen
The European Commission is to classify titanium dioxide (TiO2) in inhalable powder form as a category 2 carcinogen, a spokesperson for the EU’s executive body said to ICIS.

Europe BD demand still below expectations but mitigated by supply constraints
Demand for European butadiene (BD) remains soft but a combination of lighter feedstock slates, planned and unplanned production issues, has kept the market reasonably well balanced throughout 2019.

Europe petchems brace for higher logistics costs as Rhine’s water levels fall
Worries about the River Rhine’s low water levels are back in the minds of Europe’s petrochemicals players as barges cannot fully load, according to the Rhine Shipping Authority (WSA).

Oversupply means muted impact from Saudi attacks, but escalation could halt Mideast chems exports
Oversupply and poor demand mean that the impact on many global chemical markets from the Saudi attacks will be muted, ICIS experts said on Thursday.

Europe base oils players eye Saudi attack, monitor impact on margins
Europe’s base oils markets were slow to respond to the crude oil spike induced by an attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq crude oil processing plant.

Repairs to damaged Saudi oil processing plant could take up to four weeks
The attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq crude oil processing plant was so effective it is likely to take between two to four weeks to repair, according to new analysis by ICIS.

Saudi drone attacks threaten around 10% of global ethylene capacity
Facilities producing around 10% of global ethylene capacity are threatened by feedstock disruption after the weekend’s attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil distribution infrastructure and the subsequent closure of 5.7m bbl/day of refinery capacity.