Americas top stories: weekly summary

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Here are the top stories from ICIS News from the week ended 6 December.

US Chem Safety Board investigates TPC BD plant blast in Texas
The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has begun an investigation into the explosions at TPC Group’s butadiene (BD) plant in Port Neches, Texas, a spokeswoman for the federal agency said on Monday.

Dow aims to complete Texas cracker expansion in Q1 2020
US-based Dow plans to complete an expansion of its cracker in Orange, Texas, in the first quarter of 2020, a company official said on Tuesday.

US TPC outage to tighten BD before spare capacity kicks in
US butadiene (BD) buyers will look to other producers to fill the supply void left by the shutdown of TPC Group’s plant in Port Neches, Texas, following the explosion there on 27 November.

Slow growth, no recession for US economy, chems in ’20 – ACC economists
The US and the global economy should see slow growth in 2020 with the performance of the US chemical sector reflecting the muted outlook, economists at the American Chemistry Council (ACC) said.

November IPEX falls sharply on global downward price pressure
Petrochemical prices continued to track down in November, the global and regional ICIS petrochemical indexes (IPEXs) show.

Brazil Petrobras wants to sell Braskem stake in 12 months
Petrobras would like to sell its stake in the plastics producer Braskem in 12 months, the Brazilian state energy producer said on Friday.