Industry News
Chemical Industry News
Ukraine AN imports surge 57% in August despite sea port closures
LONDON (ICIS)--Ukrainian ammonium nitrate (AN) imports in August increased by more than half (57%) year on year to 58,563 tonnes, despite the country banning imports at some of its major ports...
Traders eye upside on THE Q1 ’26 amid storage risk
THE Q4 ‘25/Q1 ‘26 spread flipped back to seasonal norms by summer Traders see Q1 ’26 as undervalued amid cold weather potential Rehden shortfall and low fill levels could drive upside LONDON...
South Korea’s August base oils exports fall
SINGAPORE (ICIS)--South Korea’s base oils exports fell to a three-month low in August, even after the completion of a protracted round of plant maintenance and production issues. The drop in...
UPDATE: Moody’s and Fitch downgrade INEOS credit ratings, keep negative outlooks
LONDON (ICIS)--Moody’s Ratings and Fitch Ratings have downgraded the credit ratings of INEOS Group Holdings, while maintaining negative outlooks. Moody’s downgraded INEOS to B1 (S&P and Fitch...
Canada urea imports nearly flat in Jan-July, shipments from the US fall
LONDON (ICIS)--Canada imported a total 706,549 tonnes of urea in the first seven months of this year, up by just 1% over the preceding year’s shipments, as the country struggled to offset the...
Europe’s July Group III base oils supply rises
SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Europe’s Group III base oils supply rose in July to the highest level this year as a recovery in shipments from Spain and Asia countered a slowdown in supplies from the Middle...
US builder confidence remains low, contractors seek relief from a rate cut
HOUSTON (ICIS)--US builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes remained low in September, as measured by the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). The HMI came in...
Regional outages and tight hydro driving Hungarian power near curve bullishness
Hungarian power front quarter and constituent months have been on a bullish trend since the beginning of September Market participants told ICIS that this bullishness was due to tight Balkan...
US August retail and food services sales rise 0.6% from July, beat expectations
HOUSTON (ICIS)--US retail and food services sales rose 0.6% month on month in August, following an upward-revised increase of also 0.6% in July, according to US Census Bureau data released on...
Europe naphtha holds firm on gasoline, eastbound arbitrage support
LONDON (ICIS)--European open-spec naphtha (OSN) spot quotations held firm this week, supported by steady crude values, resilient gasoline blending demand and open arbitrage flows eastward, despite...
New electron diffraction strategy could make it easier to study solvated organic microcrystals
The approach combines carbon liquid cells and rapid data acquisition to study solvated molecules at room temperature
UK biofuels burning out
With UK plants facing closure, what are the options and issues around different renewable fuels?
Kesterite solar cells break efficiency ceiling after decade-long stall
Once-promising kesterite solar technology has finally broken through its efficiency ceiling, jumping from a decade-long stall at 12.6% to nearly 17% in just three years – putting commercial viability within reach.
Reviving organobismuth chemistry
Despite its low cost and low toxicity, bismuth has found limited applications in organic synthesis. Liam Ball is working to change that
AI helps identify over 1000 dubious open-access journals from screen of 15,000 titles
Program compares favourably with human integrity experts
New organic polymer paves the way for recyclable water-based batteries
Aqueous batteries have been around for centuries. They are safe and relatively low-cost, but their adoption in new energy storage systems - such as grid storage and electric vehicles - has been limited. One major
India’s Aug exports rise 6.7%, trade deficit narrows to $26.5 billion
MUMBAI (ICIS)--India’s merchandise exports in August grew by 6.7% year on year to $35.1 billion, while the trade deficit for the month narrowed to $26.5 billion on lower imports, official data...
China’s Hualu Hengsheng plans TDI project in Hubei
SINGAPORE (ICIS)--China’s Hualu Hengsheng is planning to install a 300,000 tonne/year toluene diisocyanate (TDI) project at Jingzhou in Hubei province, a company document showed. Construction is...
Plant status: Thai’s PTTGC shuts No 1 phenol/acetone unit on mechanical issue
SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Here is a plant status report: Name: PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) Location: Map Ta Phut, Thailand Product: Phenol/acetone Capacity (tonnes/year): 250,000 (phenol), 150,000 (acetone)...
Plant status: China’s Jinneng Science and Technology to restart PP Line 1
SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Here is a plant status report: Name: Jinneng Science and Technology Location: Qingdao, China Product: Polypropylene (PP) Capacity (tonnes/year): 450,000 Event start: 20 August Event...