Analytics & News

Propylene 2010 World Market Outlook and Forecast Been Re...

02 Mar 2010

LONDON – Propylene demand in Europe is set to decrease this year on 2009 year's level. A catastrophic Q4 2008 and Q1 2009 forced producers to idle capacities, although most plants are running by now. Supply tightened in May 2009 due to reduced...

Sulfuric Acid: 2010 World Market Outlook and Forecast Be...

02 Mar 2010

LONDON – A newly updated market report “Sulfuric Acid: 2010 World Market Outlook and Forecast” has been recently issued by Market Publishers, Ltd. The report features important aspects of Sulfuric Acid market, provides its full and thorough analysi...

Solar-grade polysilicon plant announced

01 Mar 2010

Qatar Solar Technologies, a new joint venture, has been created to make solar-grade polysilicon for use in fabricating solar panels. Co-owners are the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development and SolarWorld of Germany. They w...

Ineos to close Barry PVC plant

26 Feb 2010

Britain's only PVC producer Ineos ChlorVinyls is to close its plant at Barry in Wales. Supply will be covered by production at Runcorn and Newton Aycliffe in what the company describes as a consolidation move "to adjust PVC output in line with market...

Italy’s plastics industry sees improvement ahead

26 Feb 2010

Italy's plastics processing machinery manufacturers expect an upturn in the first half of 2010, and it's one they could certainly use after last year's slide. In figures provided by Assocomoplast, the trade group representing about 160 of the country...

Brunei's First Methanol Plant to Open in April

26 Feb 2010

Brunei Methanol Company (BMC) said it will begin production at the first methanol plant in Brunei in the Middle East in April. BMC's Brunei plant is expected to produce 2,500t of methanol annually at the plant, according to earthtimes.org....

Isopropanol (IPA): 2010 World Market Outlook and Forecas...

26 Feb 2010

LONDON – Isopropanol demand in Europe was hit by the financial crisis and went down by 15-20% on average in 2009, compared with 2008. Nevertheless, IPA was less influenced than other solvents due to its wide-ranging applications and use in the cosmet...

Ethylene prices in USA continue to rise during February

25 Feb 2010

US ethylene prices continued to rise during February. March Nymex cleared ethylene settling and expiring at US$0.54/lb. The contract, which began trading in July 2009, settled for February last month at US$0.4675/lb. Ethylene trades in 100,000 lb lot...

TPE North American resin pricing

25 Feb 2010

Polyethylene (PE) spot prices regained the previous week's $0.005/lb loss and in many cases climbed into new, recent highs. Michael Greenberg, CEO of spot-trading platform, The Plastics Exchange (TPE), reports that even though Asian demand remains sl...

Petrochemical output to take time to recover to pre-rece...

24 Feb 2010

Petrochemicals had passed a nadir in mid-2009, but BMI’s latest report forecasts that it will take some years for output to recover to pre-recession levels and during that time some plants will be permanently shut with potentially devastating c...

Evonik: Plans to up the price of “Visiomer” MMA

23 Feb 2010

From 1 March 2010 onwards, Evonik Industries (Essen / Germany; www.evonik.com) will raise the prices of its “Visiomer” methyl methacrylate (MMA) by EUR 140/t in Europe. In the rest of the world, excluding the NAFTA region, the price of this particula...

Upward price trend gathers pace

23 Feb 2010

Western European buyers of standard thermoplastics faced further substantial price increases in February as producers were determined to cover rises in feedstock costs and recoup flagging profit margins. PP rockets Polypropylene prices rocketed in...

DuPont: Titanium dioxide price hike from March

22 Feb 2010

DuPont Titanium Technologies (Wilmington, Delaware / USA; www.dupont.com) is to increase the price of its “Ti-Pure” titanium dioxide (TiO2) by EUR 100/t in western and central Europe and North Africa and by USD 150/t in eastern Europe, the Middle Eas...

Feed Additives Market in Russia: Business Report 2010 wa...

19 Feb 2010

The Market Publishers, Ltd. has recently presented the comprehensive research of Feed Additives Market in Russia, which offers business report on Feed Additives Market and purchase activity monitoring within the sector. Besides, the research is elabo...

ZeaChem Develops Bio-based Acetic Acid

18 Feb 2010

US firm ZeaChem has produced bio-based acetic acid glacial acetic acid, pure enough for sale. Using the broth produced in fermentation runs, the company said it has used an existing process called solvent extraction. Esterification technolo...

Polyethylene Low Density (LDPE): 2010 World Market Outlo...

18 Feb 2010

LONDON – Demand growth for Polyethylene Low Density (LDPE) kept steady at the world market. The main growth was consentrated in Asia, mostly in China. The growth was stopped by a sharp fall in demand due to the global recession. Nevertheless, L...

Dow Announces Price Increase for Polyols, MDI and TDI in...

17 Feb 2010

Effective 1 March 2010, or as contract terms allow, Dow Polyurethanes, a business group within The Dow Chemical Company and its affiliates including Dow Europe GmbH, will increase its Polyol, MDI and TDI prices in Europe. Polyol and MDI prices will b...

Uzbekistan to build plastic production plant

17 Feb 2010

Central Asian republic, Uzbekistan is planning to invest in the construction of an industrial plastics production plant in the south eastern city of Kokand. According to country’s industries ministry, the project, involving an investment of ar...

Oxea Announces Global Price Increases for Carboxylic Aci...

16 Feb 2010

Oxea will increase list and off-list prices on the products below effective immediately, or as contracts allow. 2-Ethylhexanoic Acid: 100 EUR/mt (Europe); 0.08 US$/lb (Americas); 150 US$/mt (Asia) Butyric Acids: 50 EUR/mt (Europe); 100 US$...

Global demand for polystyrene forecast to increase at 2%...

16 Feb 2010

Demand for most resins fell by 20-24% on average, in Q4-08, while the market for polystyrene fell by 9% as per MarketPublishers.com. On a regional basis, the largest demand declines were seen in Western Europe, particularly the UK and Spain. Global d...

Cristal Global announces TiO2 price increases

15 Feb 2010

Cristal Global (Cristal) announced that it will increase prices on all of its anatase and rutile Tiona and Cristal titanium dioxide (TiO2) products sold in Latin America. In Brazil: Effective March 1, 2010, or as permitted by contract, prices fo...

European ethylene prices to ease with increased supply,...

15 Feb 2010

Ethylene prices in Europe could have passed its peak for 2010 as improved cracker operations ease the supply situation and derivative prices weaken in Asia, as per ICIS. Supplies have been limited in December and January mainly due to unexpected outa...

BASF increases prices for certain polyalcohols

12 Feb 2010

BASF is increasing the prices of its polyalcohols neopentylglycol (NPG), trimethylolpropane (TMP), hydroxypivalic acid neopentylglycol ester (HPN) and 1,6-hexanediol (HDO) with immediate effect or as existing contracts permit. The price adjustment ac...

Is the masterbatch industry ready for recovery?

11 Feb 2010

Economic analysts are pointing to the recession drawing to a close in Europe driven by fiscal and monetary stimuli together with relatively resilient growth in Asia and Latin America. However, having survived the recession thus far, plenty of challen...

Dow Chemicals to Close Freeport TDI plant

09 Feb 2010

US firm Dow Chemical said it will permanently shut down its 100-kilotonne-per-year capacity toluene diisocyanate (TDI) production plant in Freeport, Texas. Dow Polyurethanes will work with Dow Texas Operations to minimise the impact of this deci...

Arkema increases Acrylic Acid and Acrylic Esters prices...

09 Feb 2010

Arkema announces a €150/ton price increase for its acrylic monomers (acrylic acid, methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, butyl acrylate and 2-ethyl hexyl acrylate) in Europe, as of February 1st 2010 or as contracts allow. This price increase is neces...

Local LLDPE, LDPE prices rally in Egypt, players blame l...

08 Feb 2010

In Egypt, players complain about tight availability in the local LDPE film market, which caused prices to record significant increases of up to EGP1400/ton ($256/ton) since the beginning of January. This situation is mainly attributed to limited impo...

Evonik to raise price for carbon black pigments & pigmen...

08 Feb 2010

The Inorganic Materials Business Unit of Evonik Industries, Essen, is increasing prices for carbon black pigments and pigment preparations by up to 9 percent depending on the product. The price increase will be effective for all deliveries on or...

Polycarbonate 2010 World Market Outlook And Forecast Rec...

05 Feb 2010

LONDON - Global annual polycarbonate demand growth is forecast to slow to around 5% between 2009-2015, from historical growth rates of around 7-8%. Key optical data storage application will continue falling as it's superseded by other data storage o...

PET: Polymer Prices Continue to be Coupled to Feedstock...

03 Feb 2010

European PET prices continued to be guided by the costs of polymer feedstocks in January 2010, the newsletter Plastics Information Europe (PIE, Bad Homburg / Germany; www.pieweb.com) found in its latest report. Prices of the feedstock MEG rose by EUR...