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Export prices for acrylonitrile from north america and Europe have moved up $50/m.t., to $800-$850/m.t. fob, since the beginning of the month on improving Asian demand. Order volumes from Asia/Pacific [...]

Annual Ethylene Capacity by more than 5 million m.t. through 2004, to about 10 million m.t./year. North America will add the most capacity, approximately 7 million m.t. during the same [...]

North American Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) producers say they are confident that prices will move up 2 cts/lb for February, to 40 cts-44 cts/lb del for general purpose. Sellers added 2 [...]

KoSa has announced a 12%-15% price increase for its polyester polymer resins for March 1. The rise does not include polyethylene terephthatlate (PET) resins. KoSa says the increase is justified [...]

A turnaround in the pulp and paper industry has led to a dramatic improvement in demand for chlorine and other bleaching chemicals, causing prices to move up. In addition, EPA's [...]

Borden chemicals and plastics (BCP; Columbus, OH) says it will focus on its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins business, and indicated that it would sell or shut its poorly performing nitrogen [...]

Benzene spot prices have risen by as much as 35 cts/gal since December, to $1.35-$1.39/gal fob. Producers have also raised benzene contracts by 25 cts/gal over the past two months, [...]

Basf has agreed to purchase ipi International (Elkton, MD), the polyurethane (PU) subsidiary of privately held PMC Global (Sun Valley, CA), for an undisclosed sum. BASF says the acquisition will [...]

North American methanol producers are girding themselves for a wave of capacity as competitors start up plants in other regions. Many of these entrants have significantly lower natural gas costs, [...]

A slump in demand for purified terephthalic acid (pta) is wreaking havoc on Asian para-xylene producers. P-xylene inventories are rising, and spot prices have tumbled more than $100/m.t. since October. [...]

Dow chemical has agreed to acquire polyurethane (PU) foam producer Flexible Products (Marietta, GA), for an undisclosed sum. Flexible Products has sales of about $140 million. The transaction is expected [...]

Sowing derivative demand and rising inventories have caused para-xylene contracts to roll over at 21 cts/lb del for the first quarter in the U.S., following a similar outcome in Europe. [...]

Kosa announced last week that it will begin producing Corterra fibers and yarns made from polytrimethylene terephtalate (PTT) resin and marketing products in the U.S. and Mexico. Shell initially will [...]

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) prices have staged a strong comeback during the past year due to improved global demand, especially in Asia. Analysts expect prices to continue rising this year, but [...]

CXY Chemicals (Vancouver, BC) has purchased Aracruz Celulose's (Aracruz, Brazil) chlor-alkali plant for $61 million. The plant has chlorine capacity of 33,000 m.t./year and is located at Barrio do Riocho, [...]

Methanol prices are declining on cheaper natural gas and are expected to begin the year below December levels, say industry sources. U.S. contracts settled down 0.5 cts/gal for November, to [...]

North American chlor-alkali producers and alumina buyers say they have concluded first-half 2000 caustic soda contracts at $135/m.t. fob, nearly double the previous figure. The settlement, considered a bellwether for [...]

Freemarkets (Pittsburgh), which hosts on-line auctions for business-to- business transactions, ended its first day of trading, December 10, at $280/share, up 500% from its offering price. The stock dropped to [...]

Dow chemical announced an epoxy resins price increase last week, saying that margins are 'unsustainable' at present levels. Most of Dow's epoxy resins will rise by 6 cts/lb, up 5%; [...]

Saturn Methanol (Houston) says the 850,000-m.t./year plant operated by its Titan Methanol affiliate at Point Lisas, Trinidad has started production and will begin shipping product by the end of the [...]

Kosa says that it plans to invest $135 million over the next three to five years to improve technology and expand polyester textile filament capacity at its Shelby, NC site. [...]

Shell Chemicals has started commercial shipments of 1,3 propan-ediol (PDO) from its 75,000-m.t./year plant at Geismar, LA. The plant will feed the company's polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) plant at Point Pleasant, [...]

Methanex has agreed to purchase Cytec industries' 30% stake in their methanol joint venture, which operates a 575,000-m.t./year plant at Cytec's Fortier, LA site. Methanex says it will mothball the [...]

Shares of SciQuest.com (Research Triangle Park, NC) doubled to $32/share after an initial public offering (IPO) on November 19 on the NASDAQ exchange. SciQuest offered 7.5 million shares at $16/share, [...]

Oxychem and Olin have followed PPG industries' move to raise chlorine prices by $50/ton, effective immediately for spot customers or as contracts permit (CW, Nov. 24, p. 5). It would [...]

The Phosphate Chemicals Export Association (PhosChem) announced last week it will offer less diammonium phosphate (DAP) to the export market and is increasing phosphate export prices, effective immediately. Global oversupply [...]

Laroche industries says its 220,000-tons/year chlor-alkali plant at Gramercy, LA has reached 70% of capacity and shipped its first rail car of chlorine last week. An explosion at the adjacent [...]

IMC Global, Phosphate Resource Partners (PLP), and McMoRan Exploration (MMR) settled a lawsuit that resulted from MMR's agreement to purchase PLP's oil and gas interests, effective October 1. Under the [...]

IMC Global says it will reduce phosphate fertilizer output by 20% through the end of the year in response to poor market conditions. The company is closing indefinitely its 570,000-tons/year [...]

Rhodia says it will close its elderly Morrisville, PA phosphates plant in several phases. The company will halt phosphorous trichloride production December 31 and stop producing phosphorus pentasulfide when existing [...]

FMC says its decision to close capacity following the acquisition of Tg Soda Ash-now FMC Granger-will support a price recovery in the soda ash market (CW, Nov. 7, p. 3). [...]

Strong domestic demand has dried up polyvinyl chloride (PVC) supply in the U.S. and pushed up export prices worldwide. PVC export prices have moved up by more than $100/m.t. in [...]

Higher raw material costs are prompting polyester fiber producers to announce more price increases. The latest round of increases will succeed because rationalization has eased oversupply, analysts say. Intermediates prices, [...]

Sterling chemicals (houston) is having a tough time competing as a midsize producer in cyclical markets, such as styrene and acrylonitrile. Pricing for its primary products reached a trough last [...]

Dow chemical has announced a $50/m.t. global price increase on caustic soda, reflecting a turnaround in the chlor-alkali market worldwide (p. 49). Dow says it is raising caustic prices by [...]

Borden Chemicals and Plastics (BCP) says talks with several industry players have failed to find it an acquirer or joint venture partner. BCP hired Salomon Smith Barney and Evercore Partners [...]

Chemical Week Associates (CWA), the publisher of Chemical Week, has taken a stake in ChemConnect, an internet chemical trading company. CW will invest an unspecified amount of cash in exchange [...]

Four North American fertilizer producers-IMC-Agrico, PCS Phosphates, Mulberry Phosphates, and Cargill-have curtailed production to reduce unwieldy inventories and firm prices across all fertilizer lines. Industry sources also expect Mississippi Chemical [...]

Fob.com (chicago) plans to launch Fobchemicals.com, its Web site for buying and selling chemicals on the Internet, at the CPhI Worldwide pharmaceutical industry trade show in Frankfurt next week. Fobchemicals [...]

Global Chlor-Alkali markets are in recovery after a yearlong decline, led by a strong North American rebound. Producers have lifted chlorine and caustic soda contract pricing in the U.S. and [...]

An internet vendor-managed inventory (VMI) application developed by Shell is now being offered to other process industries companies. Shell will soon sign up the first customer for its supplier inventory [...]

AT Plastics (Brampton, ON) announced price increases last week on its ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) products of 3 cts-6 cts/lb, a 10% increase. The company says the hikes are the [...]

The chlor-alkali market has come back with a vengeance, reversing an 18-month slide. Producers have announced caustic soda hike of up to $60/ton for October, doubling prices on the Gulf [...]

Producers are experiencing profits well above last year's expectations as petrochemical prices continue to rise. But delegates at the recent European Petrochemical Association (EPCA) meeting in Vienna say raw material [...]

SciQuest.com (Research Triangle Park, NC), an Internet-based distributor of fine chemicals and laboratory supplies, has registered to launch an initial public offering (IPO) expected to raise $90 million. The lead [...]

Dow chemical says it has implemented an order control program for caustic soda customers in the U.S. Dow says the limit will be based on a customer's monthly order volume [...]

Delegates were in an upbeat mood at last week's European Petrochemical Association (EPCA) meeting in Vienna despite the dramatic increase in raw material costs this year that has bitten into [...]

Petrochemical makers in europe have achieved substantial fourth-quarter price increases, helped by tight worldwide supply and higher feedstock costs. Propylene contracts have settled at E416/m.t. cif, a 30% increase over [...]

Chemical distributor old world industries (north-brook, IL) has agreed to purchase Celanese's ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol (EO-EG) plant at Clear Lake, TX. Celanese will continue to operate the unit, [...]

To Begin Building Plant AmerAlia (Kenilworth, IL) says it has secured a commercial bank loan of $4.2 million to begin work on a 75,000- tons/year sodium bicarbonate mine and processing [...]