Industry News
Chemical Industry News
India launches import tender for 2.5 million tonnes of urea despite constrained global supply
LONDON (ICIS)--Purchases in India’s upcoming urea import tender are expected to fall short of the government’s 2.5 million tonne target, as global supply remains severely curtailed by the ongoing...
Plant Status: Trinseo declares FM on high impact polystyrene due to technical issue
LONDON (ICIS)--Here is a plant status report: Name: Trinseo Location: Tessenderlo, Belgium Product: High impact grade polystyrene (HIPS) Capacity (tonnes/year): 265,000 total capacity at the plant...
Plant status: Covestro declares force majeure on polyether polyols
LONDON (ICIS)--Here is a plant status report: Name: Covestro Location: Europe Product: Polyether polyol products Capacity (tonnes/year): 270,000 (Antwerp), 130,000 (Fos) and 250,000 (Dormagen) Event...
EU countries urge tax on windfall energy profits
EU countries call for windfall-tax scheme to ease energy costs Measures were among options floated to recover costs of intervention Commission to consider issue but reiterates need for temporary,...
US durable goods orders fell 1.4% in February, but core orders rose 0.6%
HOUSTON (ICIS)--New orders for US-manufactured durable goods fell by 1.4% month on month to an estimated seasonally adjusted $315.5 billion in February, following a downward-revised 0.5% January...
Europe VAM spot prices rise further, April contract talks underway
LONDON (ICIS)--European spot pricing for vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) has continued to rise on very tight supply and elevated demand. Spot pricing for parcels up to 1,000 tonnes was assessed at...
Women and early-career researchers bore the burden of NIH’s funding disruptions
Almost 58% of the studies the US National Institutes of Health suddenly cancelled last year were female-led
Arbitration ruling grants EBN access to Dutch Norg gas store for storage year 2026/27
EBN secures access to Norg for current storage year following arbitration ruling Access supports the Dutch 115TWh storage target At Grijpskerk, no ruling; capacity still offered via market-driven...
GAS ALERT: Serbia advances gas market reform towards unbundling
LONDON (ICIS)--Serbia’s energy regulator AERS has given a license to the country’s transmission system operator (TSO) Transportgas Srbija, the Energy Community announced on 6 April. The move...
US sets new LNG export record in March
Exports topped 11.7 million tonnes in March Additional volumes replace some lost Qatari supply US expected to set more monthly records in 2026 HOUSTON (ICIS)--The world’s top LNG exporter broke a...
Europe acetic acid March contracts settle at increase, spot also firms
LONDON (ICIS)--European March contract pricing for acetic acid has settled at a triple-digit increase compared with February on reduced availability and upstream volatility. Settlements varied...
EU publishes Q1 2026 CBAM certificate price at €75.36/tonne
LONDON (ICIS)--The EU has announced the certificate price for the first quarter of 2026 under the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), at €75.36 per tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2), the...
MARGINS: Europe PE margins rise on higher product, co-product prices, but remain below pre-war levels
LONDON (ICIS)--Margins at polyethylene (PE) plants in Europe firmed week on week as a surge in product pricing and co-product credits outweighed higher naphtha costs, ICIS margin analysis showed on...
Fluor wins work for nuclear SMR project at Dow’s Seadrift site in Texas
HOUSTON (ICIS)--US engineering firm Fluor has won a contract to support the proposed development of a nuclear small modular reactor (SMR) at Dow’s chemical production site in Seadrift, Texas. The...
‘Year done’ already for Europe MMA amid supply shortage and rising prices
LONDON (ICIS)--The “year is done” already for the Europe methyl methacrylate (MMA) market, according to some players, on the back of the supply crunch and soaring prices. Supply expected to...
Chemists think they know what happened on board the Mary Celeste
While many theories have surfaced as to what caused a loaded ship to be devoid of its crew, could this explanation close the case?
How to choose reactor materials and test for compatibility
Merck & Co team describes simple testing strategies and criteria for decision-making
Expect the unexpected: why the chemistry community should pay more attention to ‘inert’ materials
A Japanese team’s discovery that stainless steel ball mills can activate nickel catalysts adds to a growing list of examples where supposedly inert lab equipment plays an unexpected role in chemical reactions
Breakthrough offers endless recycling for acrylic plastics without the environmental cost
A breakthrough method for chemically recycling acrylic - one of the world’s most widely used plastics - has been developed by researchers at the University of Bath. In contrast to conventional mechanical recycling, this method
Biodegradable barrier coating developed for paper packaging
The reduction of fossil raw materials also poses new challenges for the packaging industry. In a research project, scientists from INNOVENT e.V. in Jena and the paper manufacturer Reflex from Düren investigated how special paper