ECN-European Chemical News articles from July 2005

ECN-European Chemical News archives from July 2005

Borealis ownership rejig ups Middle East focus: European sellers have decided that polyolefins are better placed with owners more interested in the long term interests of the businesses. In this day and age, that means those operating out of the Middle East.(COMMENT)
July 4, 2005... THE NEWS last week that Statoil is exiting its Borealis olefins and polyolefins joint venture, leaving it to Middle East partner IPIC of Abu Dhabi, is yet another step to overseas ownership of Europe's base petrochemicals assets. With BP, Shell...

OMV: Borealis buy will make us stronger.(BUSINESS: Headlines)
July 4, 2005... STATOIL, THE Norwegian energy and petrochemicals group, has agreed to sell its 50% stake in Denmark-headquartered olefins and polyolefins joint venture Borealis to fellow shareholders IPIC and OMV for 920m [euro]. It will also receive a...

US court ruling settles vitamin dispute at last.(BUSINESS: Headlines)
July 4, 2005... IN A decision welcomed in particular by European players BASF and Roche, the US Court of Appeals for the (Washington) DC Circuit has handed down a final ruling in favour of foreign vitamins producers in a long-running dispute over jurisdiction...

Income fall for Monsanto after early buying spree.(BUSINESS: Headlines)
July 4, 2005... US AGROSCIENCES giant Monsanto has reported an 81% fall in fiscal year 2005 third quarter (Q3) net income to $47m because of increased research and development (R&D) costs related to its acquisition of two companies. St Louis,...

Poles give ZAP concrete list date.(News Watch)
July 4, 2005... Potential buyers of a 29% stake in Poland's state-owned Zaklady Azotowe Pulawy (ZAP) will have between 29 August and 9 September to bid for B-series shares. Individuals will be able to bid for up to 1.65m shares, institutions will have 3.86m...

Nell acquisition vehicle to refinance largest share of Basell debts after deal closure.(News Watch)
July 4, 2005... Nell Acquisition SARL, the Luxembourg-based company set up by Access Industries, part of the consortium with Chatterjee Group to buy Basell, expects the deal to close towards the end of July. Nell plans to refinance the lion's share of Basell's...

Nova looks at a raw materials charges.(News Watch)
July 4, 2005... Natural gas supply problems in Alberta, Canada, will cost Nova an estimated $25m-$50m in the second and third quarters of 2005, the company said last week. Nova believes the financial impact could be covered by insurance. ...

Pequiven is given liberty by state.(News Watch)
July 4, 2005... 'Pequiven is free from PDVSA, it is now its own company', Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said last week, confirming that it is no longer a subsidiary of state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) simon.robinson@icis.com

Finnish paper workers agree three-year deal after strike.(News Watch)
July 4, 2005... An agreement has been reached in the six-week long dispute between the Finnish paper workers' union Pappersforbundet and employer organisation Finnish Forest Industries Federation. Timo Poranen, president of the Finnish Forest Industries...

Iranian policy will support domestic firms.(News Watch)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Foreign contractors were left scratching their head after Iran's new president Mahmood Ahmadinejad said that priority would be given to domestic firms in awarding oil contracts and construction tenders. Contractors said they feared that the...

20 years ago: 1 July 1985.(Business)
July 4, 2005... Sabic has called on established polyethylene producers to cooperate in its marketing plans. Producers in the industrialised world should surrender part of their commodity grade PE requirements and concentrate on downstream chemical production,...

Companies partner on Jubail plant.(Al-Zamil Group of Cos., Huntsman Corp.)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... HUNTSMAN HAS signed a memorandum of understanding with the Al-Zamil Group to build a 30 000 tonne/year ethylene amines plant at Jubail Indus trial City, Saudi Arabia. Al-Zamil and Huntsman will have equal ownership in the world-scale...

Elementis set to close its US pigments operation.(BUSINESS)
July 4, 2005... UK-HEADQUARTERED speciality chemicals company Elementis plans to close most of its pigments manufacturing facilities at East St Louis, Illinois, US, in the second half of this year with the loss of about 100 jobs. Elementis said in a...

Degussa ratings drop.(BUSINESS)
July 4, 2005... STANDARD & POOR's (S&P) ratings services last week revised its outlook on Degussa's BBB+ long-term and A-2 short-term ratings to negative from stable, warning that the business environment for speciality chemicals companies looks set to remain...

Impact of Iranian election.(Mahmood Ahmadinejad )
July 4, 2005... THE ELECTION of political conservative Mahmood Ahmadinejad as president of Iran looks likely to benefit NPC in the medium term, and could help forge links with other non-US chemicals companies. Ahmadinejad, who was elected by disillusioned,...

Sales slide to continue, says UIPP.(BUSINESS)(Union des Industries de la Protection des Plantes)(fertilizer industry)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... FRANCE'S CROP protection association Union des Industries de la Protection des Plantes (UIPP) says sales rose to 1.80bn [euro] in 2004 up 1.6% on 2003, but warned the use of crop protection products would continue to slide from its 1997 peak....

Sun completes Crompton business buy.(BUSINESS: Global roundup)
July 4, 2005... Crompton completed the sale of its refined products business to Sun Capital Partners last week. Crompton chairman and chief executive officer Robert Wood said: 'Refined Products is a very good business, but does not fit in with our strategy: No...

Sinopec sales starts.(BUSINESS: Global roundup)
July 4, 2005... Sinopec's new domestic sales company, Sinopec Chemical Sales Branch, will be based in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, China. It is aiming to have a staff strength of 1200, which will come from Sinopec's existing sales network. It will act as...

Thirteen queue in Tupras tender.(BUSINESS: Global roundup)
July 4, 2005... Thirteen bidders have met the pre-qualification deadline for the block sale of 51% of Turkish oil refinery and petrochemicals concern Tupras. The list includes: Indian Oil, OMV, ENI, Shell, Repsol, PKN Orlen, MOL, Turkey's Petrol Ofisi, Tupras...

GE rejigs chemicals.(BUSINESS: Global roundup)
July 4, 2005... General Electric (GE) has reorganised its 11 businesses into six including an industrial segment including plastics and silicones. GE chairman and chief executive officer Jeff Immelt said the changes will speed GE's growth and save $200m-300m....

DuPont buys HCFCS from Rhodia.(BUSINESS: Global roundup)
July 4, 2005... DuPont will buy Rhodia's Isceon hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant blends business for an undisclosed price. The transaction is likely to be finalised in the third quarter if regulatory approvals are given. simon.robinson@icis.com

Belarus Petchem production inches up.(News Watch)
July 4, 2005... Petrochemical output in Belarus was up 5% between January and May compared with the first five months of last year, the country's statistical agency said. Mineral fertiliser output totalled 2.6m tonne or 5.6% up year-on-year, including 2.2m...

Goodyear seals Wingtack glue sale to total.(News Watch)
July 4, 2005... Goodyear will sell its Wingtack adhesives resins business to Sartomer, part of Total, for $65m. Robert Keegan, Goodyear chairman and chief executive, said it is a 'profitable business with high quality products, (but) adhesives resins are not...

PVC producer EVC finally becomes Ineos.(News Watch)
July 4, 2005... Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer EVC International will change its name to Ineos from 1 July following its complete takeover by Ineos which gained control of the firm at its annual shareholders meeting on 24 June. Shareholders at the EVC...

Court forces Azot back to the state.(News Watch)
July 4, 2005... An appeal court in Kiev has upheld a decision to annul the creation of chemical company ZAO Azot by Ukraine's State Property Fund (SPF), effectively returning ZAO Azot to state ownership. Earlier this year, the SPF went to court contesting the...

Strike at Invista's Maitland, Ontario, plant.(News Watch)
July 4, 2005... Workers at Invista's Maitland, Ontario, US, nylon intermediates site were on strike, last week forcing the firm to reduce production and shut down adipic acid production at the site. Unionised members of the 380-strong workforce started...

PKN Orlen is undervalued says Erste Bank.(News Watch)
July 4, 2005... Poland's PKN Orlen is undervalued because of its strong petrochemicals sales, according to Austria's Erste Bank. Erste's latest analysis of the oil and petrochemicals group upgrades the stock recommendation from 'hold' to 'accumulate'. The...

Epoxy resins survive blip in demand.(MARKETS: Report)
July 4, 2005... EPOXY RESINS markets have suffered from the 'speculative blip' in demand over the last few months experienced across many sectors. But despite this (plus volatile pricing further upstream and a fall-off in demand and pricing in Asia), European...

2-EH producers target rollover despite propylene decrease.(MARKETS: Report)(ethyl hexanol)
July 4, 2005... EUROPEAN ethylhexanol (2-EH) producers are adamant that domestic prices can remain stable into the third quarter (Q3), despite the recent fall in propylene feedstock costs. Europe's Q3 propylene contract price was recently settled at 640...

Bio-ethanol growth slow to take off.(MARKETS: Report)
July 4, 2005... ETHANOL IS still struggling to achieve growth in the bio-fuel sector, despite the start-up of two bio-ethanol plants in Germany in May. While the use of ethanol into ETBE is starting to take off, there are some problems with the direct blending...

EPS producers to pass on hefty increases in feedstock costs.(MARKETS: Report)(expandable polystyrene)
July 4, 2005... PRODUCERS OF expandable polystyrene (EPS) are bracing themselves to accept and pass on a hefty increase in feedstock prices. With benzene set to jump perhaps by as much as 200 [euro]/ tonne, some EPS producers are reckoning with a styrene...

BASF-YPC starts up Nanjing plant.(MARKETS: Report)
July 4, 2005... CHINA'S BASF-YPC has successfully started up its integrated petrochemical complex at Nanjing in Jiangsu province, and the 600 000 tonne/year cracker and nine downstream plants have started commercial production. The company said basic...

PE/PP plants are needed to meet demand.(MARKETS: Report)
July 4, 2005... LATIN AMERICA Hill require more than one new 300 000 tonne/year polyethylene (PE) plant every year and a 300 000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) plant more often than every two years to meet rising demand, says Polyolefins Consulting. PE...

Cable & wireless hooks up with BASF.(Logistics Watch)
July 4, 2005... BASF has awarded an Asia-wide internet protocol network contract worth $9m over three years to Cable & Wireless. The UK communications company will supply, operate and maintain the network which links over 60 BASF companies across Asia,...

UK peroxide deal.(Logistics Watch)
July 4, 2005... Christian Salvesen has won a contract from polyester resins and gelcoats producer Scott Bader to deliver organic peroxide throughout the UK. The two companies have designed special secure containers to ensure the hazardous chemical is...

Vinyl added to mix.(Logistics Watch)
July 4, 2005... Chance & Hunt has added Vinisol vinyl solution resins from Brazil's World Wide Partnership to its UK range. The resins are used in a solvent or solvent mixture in various paints and coatings applications. The company can now also supply Azepor...

Green ship recycling.(Logistics Watch)
July 4, 2005... An unnamed Dutch financier is providing Ecodock with the 64m [euro] needed to build its first 'green' ship recycling yard. The dock in Eemshaven, Netherlands should be ready to begin demolition projects in late 2007. Ecodock hopes to replicate...

Agency to look into rail restructure.(LOGISTICS & DISTRIBUTION)
July 4, 2005... THE EUROPEAN Railway Agency officially opened its doors last month. Located in Valenciennes, France, its role will be to draw up common technical and operational rules for all of Europe's railways. Jacques Barrot, Europe's transport...

Drewry analyses latest IMO tanker regulations.(LOGISTICS & DISTRIBUTION)
July 4, 2005... Drewry Shipping Consultants has published its analysis on the revisions of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) IBC/Marpol Annex II and its impact on the chemical tanker industry. The new regulations, which reclassify over 100m...

Port project attracts high interest.(LOGISTICS & DISTRIBUTION)
July 4, 2005... The Port of Rotterdam is concluding 'expressions of interest' with 15 candidates for its Maasvlakte 2 project (ECN 16 May). The port said it is 'extremely pleased' with the amount of interest shown from all of the major international...

Den Hartogh awarded Nobel contract.(LOGISTICS & DISTRIBUTION)(Akzo Nobel Functional Chemicals L.L.C.)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Netherlands-based Den Hartogh is supplying logistics management services to Akzo Nobel Functional Chemicals in Herkenbosch. Its role is to initiate and implement performance improvement programmes together with the local management with the...

Gazprom invests share funds in Novourengoi.(NEW PROJECTS: Roundup)
July 4, 2005... Gazprom plans to invest proceeds from its 10.74% share sale to the Russian government, which generated Rouble203.5bn (5.83bn [euro]/$7.14bn) to build the Novourengoi gas-chemical complex. Gazprom first decided to build the Novourengoi complex...

BOC to begin work on Utah hydrogen plant.(NEW PROJECTS: Roundup)
July 4, 2005... BOC is planning to invest $50m in a new hydrogen plant in Salt Lake City, Utah, US. Construction will begin next month and when completed in mid-2006 the unit will fulfil seven supply contracts awarded to BOC by US refineries over the last...

Jacobs wins contract for pet expansion.(NEW PROJECTS: Roundup)(polyethylene terephthalate )(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Equipolymers has awarded Jacobs Engineering a contract for the detailed engineering and procurement for an expansion of its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant in Ottana, Sardinia, Italy. Equipolymers, a joint venture between Dow Chemical...

BP to update Gelsenkirchen olefins cracker.(NEW PROJECTS: Roundup)
July 4, 2005... BP is planning a modernisation and expansion of its olefins cracker within the ChemSite in Gelsenkirchen, Ruhr Valley, Germany. BP currently takes 50% of the production, or 640 000 tonne/year of ethylene, from the unit that is jointly owned...

Reference prices breaks through $1000/tonne.(Markets Watch)
July 4, 2005... The London Metal Exchange's reference price for linear low density polyethylene (lldPE) and polypropylene (PP) broke the $1000/tonne level last Monday for the first time. LldPE was up $15/tonne at $1000/tonne and PP was up $20/tonne at...

Basell resigns from plastics committee.(Markets Watch)
July 4, 2005... It has been confirmed that Basell resigned from the London Metal Exchange (LME) plastics committee prior to the launch in May of plastics futures contracts. Basell had already declined to register brands with the exchange. While supporting the...

US produces look for aromatics hikes.(Markets Watch)
July 4, 2005... Nova Chemicals is seeking a 5 cent/lb increase for July styrene contracts in North America. The increase is said to be in response to higher US benzene spot prices and improving styrene demand in Asia. Players report that the June styrene...

EU extends anti-dumping duties on imports.(Markets Watch)
July 4, 2005... The European Union Council of Ministers has widened the scope of anti-dumping duties imposed on imports into the EU of ammonium nitrate from Russia and the Ukraine. It has agreed that the duties should cover fertilisers where the chemical is...

Global price hike for n-Methylpyrrolidone.(Markets Watch)
July 4, 2005... BASF is targeting a global price increase for n-Methylpyrrolidone from 1 July. Rises of 150 [euro]/tonne are sought in Europe, 10 cent/lb in NAFTA countries and $200/tonne in Asia. michael.Gordon@icis.com

Abbreviations and currency notes.(NEW PROJECTS: Roundup)
July 4, 2005... Prices contained in this magazine are obtained by ECN through consultation with producers, consumers and merchants across Europe They are intended as a guide to price levels of recent business in Europe and reflect medium to large tonnage...

Skanska wins $46m nitrogen contract.(Projects Watch)
July 4, 2005... Praxair has awarded Skanska a $46m contract to engineer, procure, construct and install a nitrogen plant in Mexico, as well as the piping for distribution. The unit will supply nitrogen to the state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos...

50% more polyimide resin out of Ohio.(Projects Watch)
July 4, 2005... DuPont is increasing capacity for Vespel-brand polyimide resin by 50% at Circleville, Ohio, US. The new capacity is expected to be available by October. The company has not disclosed the cost of the expansion or the capacity, but said it was...

Kuwait picks fluor for Olefins II build.(Projects Watch)
July 4, 2005... Fluor will provide engineering, procurement and construction management services for the utilities and infrastructure portion of Olefins II, being built in Kuwait. Fluor said that the memorandum of understanding with the Dow Chemical and...

Acron tells $1.4bn plan.(NEW PROJECTS)(Acron Joint Stock Co.)
July 4, 2005... RUSSIA'S JSC Acron is planning to invest almost $1.4bn in a ten-year modernisation of its fertiliser production, which currently stands at 3m tonne/year. Ivan Antonov, JSC Acron president, told ECN $38m had been invested in 2004, and that...

Braskem signs jv deals to build two PP plants.(NEW PROJECTS)
July 4, 2005... BRASKEM HAS signed two joint venture agreements to build multi-million dollar polypropylene (PP) plants, one in Brazil and one in Venezuela. A $240m agreement has been made with Petroquisa, the petrochemicals subsidiary of the Brazilian...

IPCL launches second phases of expansion.(NEW PROJECTS)
July 4, 2005... INDIAN Petrochemicals Corp (IPCL) is beginning the second phase of its expansion (ECN 8 February 2004) to hike the capacity of seven downstream products by October 2006 at a cost of Rupee4.85bn (91m [euro]/ $111m). The first phase was completed...

A third train for Motiva.(NEW PROJECTS)
July 4, 2005... MOTIVA ENTERPRISES is to build a third train to make lube oil base stocks at its Port Arthur, Texas, US, facility. The investment will take Motiva's capacity to make Group II base stocks to 13m bbl/year. Catalyst technology for the plant will...

PND licenses go to Basell.(NEW PROJECTS)
July 4, 2005... PROJECT MANAGEMENT and Development (PMD) has awarded Basell licenses to use its Spheripol and Lupotech T technologies in Saudi Arabia. They are to be used for two polypropylene (PP) plants and a low density polyethylene (ldPE) unit in the...

What a difference a year makes: last year's predictions of 2.6% output growth this year have been extinguished, due to high oil prices, a strong euro and slower economic activity. Jane Gibson takes a long, hard look at global petrochemical trends in 2005.(PETROCHEMICALS: Overview)(Cover Story)
July 4, 2005... ONE YEAR ago, Cefic revised its economic forecast for the chemical industry--upwards. A year on, empty order books and falling production statistics have led Cefic to slash its prediction for chemicals output growth from 2.6% to 1.6% for 2005....

Parity for the poor relation: for the first time, the contracts price for propylene has been set exactly the same as for ethylene. Is the relationship between the two changing.(PETROCHEMICALS: Propylene)
July 4, 2005... IT HAS been a long time coming, but now it has finally arrived. Europe's propylene contract price is at parity with ethylene. In mid-June, BP-Refining and Petroleum and Celanese settled initial European quarter three ethylene and propylene...

The party's over: last year's world economy boom has given way to the hangover of record oil prices. But unlike the alcohol-induced variety, this one will be around for a long while.(PETROCHEMCIALS: Oil prices)
July 4, 2005... ARE YOU worried about the price of oil? A year ago this would have been an issue mainly for buyers or sellers of petrochemicals. But this year rising petrol and energy prices will hit everybody's pockets. As crude off breaches $60/bbl,...

Checked by China: at a time when crude oil was heading for a record high, why did aromatics and olefins prices slide so dramatically ... then rise again? Towards Asia maybe?(PETROCHEMICALS: Margin)
July 4, 2005... THE MORE unpredictable things become, the more we rely on predictions. So it was no surprise that markets were ready to believe in the record margins forecast for this year and next. But then along came a slowdown and disappointment set in....

EU upholds eight GMO bans.(ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS)(genetically modified organisms)
July 4, 2005... EUROPE'S MEMBER states have voted to uphold eight national bans on GMO maize and rape seed. The vote in the Environment Council goes against the Commission's call for existing bans in Austria, France, Greece, Germany and Luxembourg to be...

EU ministers call for action on mercury.(ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... ENVIRONMENTAL NGOs and health groups have welcomed the EU environment ministers' conclusions on mercury. Following a meeting of the environment council, ministers confirmed the need for action to ensure the safe storage of mercury including...

New waste regulations remain a mystery to many.(ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS)
July 4, 2005... ACCORDING TO the UK's Environment Agency, less than a third of SMEs are aware of new regulations for handling hazardous waste. The findings, based on a survey of more than 1000 SMEs in England and Wales, also showed that there was a higher...

PFOA may pose cancer risk.(ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS)
July 4, 2005... A DRAFT report from a panel of independent scientists advising the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded that PFOA is a 'likely human carcinogen'. PFOA is used by DuPont in the manufacture of Teflon. The results of report...

Eco-efficiency centre opens in Brazil.(ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS)
July 4, 2005... LATIN AMERICA'S first centre for applied eco-efficiency has been inaugurated at BASF's site in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil. BASF said that through the Espaco Eco Foundation, it will offer private companies across South America expertise and...

List of 1500 chemicals gains support.(ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... FOLLOWING THE meeting of the environment council, which met at the end of June in Luxembourg, support has been given to the setting up of a list of candidate substances for authorisation. Some 1500 chemicals are expected to be included in the...

Formosa to pay $450 000 penalty in settlement.(ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS)
July 4, 2005... FORMOSA PLASTICS has settled a joint federal-state lawsuit over excess vinyl chloride emissions and other violations of federal and state environmental law. The lawsuit applies to Formosa's facility in Delaware City, Delaware, US. In the...

A pure strategy.(Innovation Watch)(Novasep Process forms strategic alliance with Rohm and Haas Co.)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Novasep Process, part of life sciences network Groupe Novasep, and Rohm and Haas' advanced biosciences division have formed a strategic alliance aimed at combining their respective capabilities to offer new bio-purification solutions. Groupe...

Human cell tools.(Innovation Watch)(Agilent Technologies Inc. and Human Metabolome Technologies )(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Agilent Technologies and Human Metabolome Technologies (HMT), a Japanese bioventure, have agreed to cooperate to develop an integrated set of tools for characterising the range of metabolites present in human cells. Under the agreement, the two...

Fluid goes stereo and 3D.(Innovation Watch)
July 4, 2005... UK software provider Cambridge Flow Solutions has partnered with visualisation company Virtalis to develop a method of seeing computational fluid dynamics data in 3D stereo. The new technology, to be called GigaCell VR, will allow users to view...

Useful research gets 2m [euro].(Innovation Watch)
July 4, 2005... Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research has awarded researchers a 2m [euro] grant to investigate the usefulness of oxynitrile technologies in manufacturing chiral building blocks needed by the global pharmaceutical industry. ...

Hydrogen powers sports car.(Innovation Watch)
July 4, 2005... THE WORLD's first hydrogen-powered sports car could be on the roads in under three years, according to plans by a consortium of UK partners. The LIFECar will be based on the Morgan Aero Eight and powered by a QinetiQ-made fuel cell, which...

UK's Q Chip builds the world's first MicroPlant.(Innovation Watch)
July 4, 2005... UK DRUG delivery firm Q Chip has developed what it claims is the 'world's first fully functioning' 'MicroPlant', capable of producing commercial volumes of uniform, precisely loaded, microcapsules using a range of biocompatible polymers. ...

FP7 access to be simplified.(Innovation Watch)(European Union. Research Framework Programme )(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... THE EUROPEAN Commission is consulting researchers over ways to simplify access to the European Union Research Framework Programme 7 (FP7). A workshop in June highlighted ten measures outlined in a working document on simplification accompanying...

Novozymes' green prize.(Innovation Watch)
July 4, 2005... FOR THE second time in four years, the US Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Novozymes with a Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award. This year's award is for applying enzymes to develop healthier fats and oils for use in...

Destocking over as sales improve.(MARKETS: Plastics monitor)
July 4, 2005... EUROPEAN COMMODITY polymer prices continued to fall in June, drifting down by between 50 [euro] and 100 [euro]/tonne. The majority of losses were in the first half of the month, where a combination of oversupply and poor volume sales took their...

Bulk chemical prices.(MARKETS: Bulk trends)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... [GRAPHICS OMITTED] EUROPEAN Q3 2004-Q3 2005 CONTRACT PRICES, [euro]/TONNE 2004 QUARTERLY Q3 Q4 Ethylene 635 700 Propylene ...

Olefins slumber while aromatics rise.(MARKETS: Trends)
July 4, 2005... Naphtha markets have been volatile. Naphtha prices reached $460/tonne cif NWE in trading early in the week, but by mid-week had dropped to the $438-448/tonne cif NWE range. Lower crude oil prices then pushed numbers down, before a surge of...

Dow Reichhold.(People on the move)(appointment of Dave Gartshore and Galen Hatfield in Dow Reichhold Specialty Latex L.L.C.)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... DAVE GARTSHORE is one of two new executives at Dow Reichhold Specialty Latex. He moves from his role as commercial director for the Americas to a role as vice president for global sales. Gartshore joined Dow Reichhold in 2002. Timothy Nothcutt...

Firestop.(People on the move)
July 4, 2005... MICK GALLAGHER has joined Firestop to spearhead sales of the company's new textile flame retardant technology Noflan, where he will focus on developing customer contacts in the UK, Benelux and Italy. Gallagher comes with a background in the...

BASF IT Services.(People on the move)
July 4, 2005... KURT ETTMULLER is to succeed Ludwig Angeli as managing director, responsible for finance and corporate functions at BASF IT Services.