Europe top stories: weekly summary

LONDON (ICIS)–Here are some of the top stories from ICIS Europe for the week ended 25 November.

Big Indian urea purchase unable to absorb entire market surplus
The urea market continues to remain under downward pressure as a 1.5m-tonne purchase from India was unable to absorb all of the surplus supply in the market.

Germany may avoid recession as sentiment improves in November – Ifo
German economic sentiment improved in November compared with the previous month, according to the latest data from the Ifo Institute on Thursday, which could allay immediate fears of a national recession.

Europe BDO market uncertain about future amid lacklustre demand
The outlook for the European butanediol (BDO) market remains uncertain over future consumption as weak macroeconomic conditions influence current demand.

Shell to evaluate UK investments as windfall tax on oil producers increased
Shell is to evaluate plans to spend up to £25bn in the next 10 years in the UK after the government announced an increase in a windfall tax on oil and gas producers, the energy and petrochemicals major confirmed to ICIS.

Nearly 60% of German chems would need to cut output to reduce natural gas use
57% of Germany’s chemicals producers would need to cut output in the coming six months to achieve further savings in natural gas, according to research institute Ifo.

More needed after COP summit to meet climate targets – European Commission
Talks at the COP 27 climate summit have kept the goal of limiting global temperature rises set out in Paris seven years ago, but more commitments on carbon dioxide (CO2) mitigation and stronger steps to phase out fossil fuels are necessary, the European Commission said on Monday.