Europe top stories: weekly summary

LONDON (ICIS)–Here are some of the top stories from ICIS Europe for the week ended 27 November.

INSIGHT: Developing strategies in uncertain times
Chemicals companies’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance is more noticed as climate action climbs the corporate agenda.

German industry expectations fall as second wave stalls recovery
German manufacturing business conditions remained positive in November but expectations for the coming months “turned notably less optimistic”, according to the Ifo Institute on Tuesday.

Europe capro prices face upward pressure from feedstocks, tighter availability
The European caprolactam (capro) markets continue to face upward pressure in November from the double-digit increase in the price of feedstock benzene, good demand and tighter supply due to an outage at a capro facility in Belgium.

Germany’s lockdown measures lack ‘planning horizon’, uphill battle for businesses in Q1 – BDI
Germany’s restrictions to mobility to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic will remain in place until at least 20 December, although the measures lack “sufficient planning horizon” and risk causing further pain for businesses in the winter months, the Federation of German Industries (BDI) said.

INSIGHT: Container shipping chaos spikes prices, delays chemical shipments
Chemicals container shipping costs have jumped drastically along some routes as the coronavirus pandemic remaps traditional trading patterns and issues at European ports add to delays in the region.

DSM aims to produce green PA6, targets fully bio-based portfolio by 2030
DSM has signed an agreement with Neste under which the Finish refiner will supply sustainable feedstocks for production of polyamide 6 (PA6), a push for green polymers it will aim to complete by 2030, the Dutch specialty chemicals major said on Friday.

INSIGHT: Europe struggling with second wave lockdowns, EU needs recovery plan
Chemicals trade group Cefic is downbeat on European chemical industry performance running into the year end, highlighting the seriousness of the second wave of the Covid-19 outbreak and its expected impact.