HOUSTON (ICIS)–United Auto Workers (UAW) membership will begin a “Stand Up Strike” at 38 Stellantis and GM parts distribution centres at 16:00 GMT (noon EST) after negotiations with two of the Big Three have made no progress since the strike began eight days ago. UAW President Shawn Fain said during a live stream that no […]

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Australian producer Agrimin Limited has announced it has entered into a Share Sale Agreement (SSA) with the receivers of former potash producer Kalium Lakes which held the Beyondie project which was focused on manufacturing sulphate of potash (SOP). The deal includes Kalium Lakes subsidiaries, Kalium Lakes Potash and Kalium Lakes Infrastructure. These entities comprise […]

The war in Ukraine has caused oil and especially gas price volatility, as restricted flows from Russia to Ukraine caused values to spike to record-breaking levels before collapsing to pre-war levels. Since December 2022, unseasonably mild winter weather hit demand, reversing gas prices. However millions of tonnes of chemical and fertilizer production remain offline across […]

A further billion dollars of polyethylene (PE) sales in China were lost year-on-year by the major exporters in January-July 2023 versus January-June 2023, according to my latest estimates. These assessments make use of CFR (cost & freight) China ICIS Pricing assessments and the China Customs’ department’s records – via our Supply & Demand Database – […]

LONDON (ICIS)–A report from the UK’s Royal Society published 8 September said that Great Britain needs as much as 100TWh of storage capacity by 2050 to manage periods of low renewable generation, with hydrogen storage in salt caverns the preferred option for storage. The report states that GB could have as much as 200GW of […]

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Trade groups representing US railroads and chemical producers and distributors are pouring over a proposed new rule on reciprocal switching issued today by the US agency that oversees railroads. The Surface Transportation Board (STB), which oversees railroads in the US, said the new rule focuses on providing customers access to reciprocal switching as a […]

LONDON (ICIS)–Moldova has urged for increased capacity in reverse flow along the Trans-Balkan pipeline to facilitate larger regional gas imports amid energy curtailment risks. Speaking to ICIS, Constantin Borosan, secretary of state in the country’s ministry of energy said Moldova is ready to find a solution to increase compression along the route for security of […]

Global polyethylene (PE) capacity across all three grades may have to be as much as 23m tonnes/year lower than the ICIS base case between 2023 and 2030 to return operating rates to healthy historic average. This assumes annual average demand growth in China of 1.2% per year versus our base case of 3.3% in this […]