Europe top stories: weekly summary

LONDON (ICIS)–Here are some of the top stories from ICIS Europe for the week ended 9 July.

Repsol to add 600,000 tonnes/year of PP, LLDPE output in Portugal
Repsol is to invest €657m at its Sines facilities in Portugal to build two units to produce 300,000 tonnes/year of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and 300,000 tonnes/year of polypropylene (PP), the Spanish energy and petrochemicals major said on Friday.

June IPEX down 3% month on month on falling NE Asia and Europe prices
The ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) fell 3.2% month on month in June, tracking price falls seen across most of the major petrochemical and plastics commodities in Europe and north east Asia.

Germany’s construction sector hit by supply shortages
The German construction sector is hampered by a shortage of materials and escalating purchase prices, according to the ifo institute on Thursday.

INSIGHT: Fertilizer industry will be hit by EU carbon charge proposals, not petchems
The fertilizer industry is one of the sectors to fall under the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) proposals which will be revealed in detail next week (14 July).

Europe’s Rhine river barge traffic unaffected by high water levels
Water levels in the River Rhine in Germany, a key petrochemicals logistical route, are unusually high for this time of the year but barge navigation is unaffected, a spokesperson for the Rhine River Authority (WSV) said to ICIS.

S Africa Rio Tinto mining FM adds uncertainty to strained Europe TiO2 supply
European titanium dioxide (TiO2) feedstock supply uncertainty could be aggravated by a force majeure declaration on Rio Tinto’s mining operations in South Africa after workers’ raised security concerns.