TORONTO (ICIS)–The chances for new investments in Canada’s chemical and other industries have sharply improved under the new government, executives at trade group Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC) said in a webinar. The Liberals on 28 April won a fourth consecutive term – but under a new prime minister, Mark Carney, who in March took over from Justin Trudeau. Before becoming prime minister, Carney was a senior executive at a Toronto-based asset management company. Prior to that, he was the governor of two central banks: The Bank of Canada (2008-2013), during the Great Financial Crisis; and the Bank of England (2013-2020), during Brexit. Scott Thurlow, CIAC legal counsel, Chemicals Management, said Carney’s government was likely the most business-friendly government since the end of the Second Word War. “There is no such thing as a tax credit that this government won’t like if they think it will attract one dollar of additional investment,” he said. Thurlow’s only reservation was that the current finance minister seemed to spend too much time on “protecting” government-supported investments that were announced when he was industry minister under Trudeau. These investments were mostly in electric vehicle (EV) and battery projects, which received more than Canadian dollars (C$) 50 billion (US$36 billion) in government support. Christine Nahas, CIAC policy manager, said that Carney’s was a “conservative-liberal” rather than just a liberal government. Carney has adopted some of the Conservatives’ positions, especially on the development of Canada’s energy and mineral resources. Nahas said that the government would be looking at investments through an economic lens, with a strong focus on competitiveness and strengthening the economy. She added that Carney has committed to establishing Canada as an “energy superpower”, with accelerated project timelines in both clean and conventional energies. STABLE GOVERNMENT Thurlow and Nahas noted that while the Liberals won the largest number of seats in parliament, they do not have a majority, meaning they need support from at least one of the three opposition parties to pass legislation. As such, the opposition has “some leverage” to delay or amend legislation, they said. However, it was “highly, highly unlikely” that the opposition parties would join to bring down the government in a no-confidence vote, the executives said. Two of the opposition parties were in trouble after losing the elections, they explained. For one, there were questions about the leadership of the Conservatives, who had been far ahead in opinion polls for nearly two years – until the US tariff threat emerged and the Liberals in March forced Trudeau’s resignation. Furthermore, the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP), on which Trudeau’s minority government had relied, has been reduced to just seven seats, meaning it can be excluded from parliamentary committees, they noted. The Liberals won 169 seats, three short of the 172 needed for a majority in the 343-seat lower house, the House of Commons. PATH2ZERO DELAY Asked about CIAC’s view of Dow’s recent decision to delay its Path2Zero petrochemicals project in Alberta province, Thurlow said that the delay was due to changes in global commodities markets since Dow started planning that project. “The world economy has changed just a little bit since then, and it has been changing very quickly in the last couple of months,” he said. The delay was unrelated to Canada’s industrial carbon pricing, which remained intact, with the country remaining on track for a carbon price of C$170/tonne by 2030, he said. While Carney suspended the consumer carbon tax, he retained Canada’s federal industrial carbon pricing. With the consumer carbon tax gone, it was likely that the government would increase the industrial carbon price to meet its “very aggressive” emissions reduction targets, Thurlow noted. A higher carbon price would support more projects like Path2Zero. In related news, the Liberals, with support from the Conservatives, last week passed new legislation to speed up “nation-building projects” and remove barriers to interprovincial trade. However, critics have said that this “One Canadian Economy Act” to fast-track big infrastructure and energy projects risks infringing on the rights of Canada’s indigenous peoples. (US$1 = C$1.37) Thumbnail photo of Canada’s flag (Source: Government of Canada)

LONDON (ICIS)–The EU’s candidate list of hazardous chemicals has reached a landmark 250 entries after the addition of three new substances. Two of the ‘substances of very high concern’ (SVHC), which are used in cosmetics, personal and automotive care products, are very persistent and bioaccumulative, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) said in a statement. A third substance, used in textile treatment products and dyes, was described as toxic for reproduction. Of the 250 entries on the candidate list, some cover groups of chemicals so the overall number of impacted individual chemicals is higher. Under the EU’s Reach regulation, chemical companies have certain obligations if a substance they deal with is included in the candidate list, such as providing information on safe usage. Substances on this list may later be placed on the authorisation list, meaning they cannot be used unless companies apply for authorization and the European Commission authorizes continued use. Earlier this month, the EU announced a plan to streamline chemicals data with a scheme called the one substance, one assessment (OSOA) package. This aims to build a common platform to integrate existing databases and enable easier, earlier detection and action of risks from newer products.

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Rates for shipping containers from Asia to the US are plummeting this week as general rate increases (GRIs) that took effect on 1 June failed to hold. Market intelligence group Linerlytica said rates collapsed under the weight of excess capacity. “Freight rates to the US West Coast have recorded their largest weekly losses in the last two weeks as their failure to retain any of their 1 June rate hikes have also put the peak season surcharge for contract customers at risk,” Linerlytica said in a Week 25 market update. “The early end to the transpacific peak season has not yet dragged down rates on the secondary routes that remain supported by buoyant cargo volumes, while charter rates also remain firm with very limited open tonnage.” Carriers pulled excess capacity out of the Asia-US trade lane in May after US President Donald Trump imposed exorbitant tariffs on China and have rushed to bring back capacity once the two nations reached agreement on a new trade deal. Rates on the global Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) have given back all the increases from the past three weeks, with rates to the US West Coast falling by 20% week on week and rates to the US East Coast down by 7.5% from the previous week. Container ships and costs for shipping containers are relevant to the chemical industry because while most chemicals are liquids and are shipped in tankers, container ships transport polymers, such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), which are shipped in pellets. They also transport liquid chemicals in isotanks. STRAIT OF HORMUZ Global shipping concerns surrounding the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East have eased amid a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Lars Jensen, president of consultant Vespucci Maritime, said in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday that the strait remains fully open and operational, adding that global container shipping major Hapag-Lloyd is continuing operations through the strait per normal. Carriers continue to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal because of threats of attacks from Yemen-backed Houthi rebels. Jensen said the Houthis likely will no longer feel bound by the ceasefire they made with the US in early May regarding not attacking US vessels in the Southern Red Sea and in the Gulf of Aden following the US bombing of nuclear facilities in Iran. The Houthis said previously that US ships in the Red Sea will be targeted if US launched any military attack against Iran. Visit the US tariffs, policy – impact on chemicals and energy topic page Visit the Logistics: Impact on chemicals and energy topic page Thumbnail image shows a container ship. Photo by Shutterstock.

LONDON (ICIS)–Covestro is acquiring Swiss multilayer adhesive films company Pontacol for an undisclosed sum as part of a strategic portfolio expansion, it said on Tuesday. The Germany-headquartered polymer materials producer said the deal would enable production capacity expansion for multilayer adhesive films in Europe and the development of new markets. The transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter, includes two specialized production sites in Switzerland and Germany with 100 employees, focusing on different film technologies. Covestro said the film segment was growing worldwide, driven by increasing demand in future markets such as medical technology, mobility, and the textile industry.

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Oil prices declined by more than $2/barrel on Tuesday afternoon in Asia, as US President Donald Trump said that the Israel-Iran ceasefire – which was confirmed by Israel – is now in effect. “The ceasefire is now in effect,” said Trump said in a social media post. Both Brent and WTI benchmarks were trading below $70/barrel as of 07:45 GMT. Crude prices in $/barrel Product Latest (as of 07:45 GMT) Previous Change Brent August 69.31 71.48 -2.17 WTI August 66.39 68.51 -2.12 Latest developments have eased concerns about the possible blockade by Iran of the Strait of Hormuz, which is vital for global energy trades. Trump had earlier announced on social media a “total and complete” ceasefire that will come into effect within 24 hours if both Israel and Iran maintain peace. At 06:20 GMT, the Israeli government released a statement declaring that its objectives in the conflict had been achieved, thanking Trump and the US for their “participation in eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat”. The statement from the Office of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that Israel agreed to the ceasefire. “Israel will respond forcefully to any violation of the ceasefire,” it added. In a reversal from an earlier post denying a ceasefire, Iran foreign minister Abbas Araghchi in social media post on X that military operations on Israel had continued until “the very last minute” at 4am local time (00:30 GMT). Meanwhile, Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Mohammad Pakpour said that any renewed US aggression would be met with “even more crushing and regret-inducing responses”, according to Iranian state media. Following the easing of tensions in the Middle East, the focus should now return to core fundamentals, such as OPEC’s production ramp-up plans, global demand trends, and softening growth outlook – all of which argue for weaker oil prices, said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, in a note on Tuesday. US crude could fall below $65/barrel and resume its year-to-date bearish trajectory if tensions do not re-escalate, Ozkardeskaya said. (Adds details throughout) Visit the ICIS Israel-Iran conflict: impact on chemicals and energy topic page for latest updates and analysis

IPS talks to ICIS about its new BESS factory in Bulgaria and other developments The BESS production plant could speed up storage deployment in Bulgaria and in central and eastern Europe, boost grid stability Bulgaria eyes 10GWh BESS by end of 2026 WARSAW (ICIS)–To address rapidly growing demand for energy storage, International Power Supply (IPS) is set to officially open a new automated manufacturing facility of industrial and utility scale batteries in Bulgaria in September, Mariyana Yaneva, CEO at IPS, told ICIS in an exclusive interview. The manufacturing will launch with a 1.5GWh annual capacity, scaling to 3GWh by the end of 2025, IPS plans indicated. Yaneva said the move to produce industrial and utility scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) is “a natural next step for the company with 36 years of experience in R&D and manufacturing of power conversion systems and micro-grid solutions with projects ranging from the deserts of Saudi Arabia to Livingston Island in Antarctica.” In May, IPS announced the launch of the EXERON X-BESS 8, its latest innovation in utility-scale BESS. BENCHMARK PRODUCT The system delivers a rated capacity of up to 8.1MWh with an integrated 4MW inverter. This represents a new benchmark for power density and space efficiency in large-scale applications, IPS told ICIS. “Our objective is to deliver market value through a vertically integrated BESS designed to optimize total cost of ownership. The modular architecture of our system reduces costs associated with transportation, installation, and maintenance while the integrated power conversion system can support a wide range of applications, including grid-forming functionalities, offering asset operators the technical capability to stack revenues from power and systems services markets,” Yaneva added. “As a European manufacturer, we are also well positioned to capitalize on the noticeable shift in EU policy to support the development of cleantech industry in Europe through the upcoming NZIA requirements for public procurement as well as resilient and independent supply chains,” Yaneva told ICIS. “For the moment, investor interest in energy storage is very strong in Bulgaria and the wider region,” she said. This is also partially underpinned by available European funding schemes, “but equally so by the changing energy mix in those countries. For example, solar PV jumped from 4% in the annual energy mix of Bulgaria in 2020 to 14% in 2024,” she noted. Yaneva also told ICIS that, “As solar capture prices continue to decline and the spread between minimum and maximum prices in the day-ahead market widens, market conditions are increasingly favorable for arbitrage trading strategies”. In this context, she explained, BESS can play a “critical role” in enhancing energy management strategies for both renewable energy producers and industrial electricity consumers. Yaneva also said co-location or hybridization of generation and energy storage assets, especially solar-plus-storage, will be the new standard for continued development of the sector. As renewables make up an ever-increasing share of the generation mix, they will also have to take up more responsibilities with respect to the balancing of the system and the trading profiles that allow assets to capture a sustainable internal rate of return (IRR). BULGARIAN BESS TARGETS During a recent forum, Angelin Tsachev, executive director of the Bulgarian electricity transmission operator ESO also highlighted the large investor interest in the construction of electricity storage systems. Over the past nine months, BESS connection applications reached a total capacity of over 11GW and a storage capacity of nearly 32GWh. The preliminary contracts concluded are for a capacity of over 7.5GW and a storage capacity of 23GWh. Two independent energy storage facilities have already been put into operation: One has a power of 10MW and a storage capacity of 27MWh. The other has an installed power of 125MW and a storage capacity of almost 500MWh, ESO said. IPS is a preferred supplier to several co-located and stand-alone projects that will also start operations in Bulgaria by the end of the year. The capacity of the first production line is fully booked by the end of the year, Yaneva added. “Should the European Commission and national authorities extend the deadline for project implementation under the NRRP schemes beyond March 2026, as is already indicated by the latest voting in European Parliament, this will allow us to absorb more of the local demand, but in any case, we are looking for partners to expand on other European markets too,” Yaneva told ICIS.

MUMBAI (ICIS)–India’s Dhunseri Ventures Ltd (DVL) plans to invest rupee (Rs) 22.4 billion ($260 million) to expand its packaging film capacity through brownfield and greenfield expansions, a company official said on Tuesday. The expansion would be done through its wholly owned subsidiary Dhunseri Poly Films Pvt Ltd (DPFPL). DPFPL plans to invest Rs10 billion to build a 61,000 tonne/year biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) unit and a 95,000 tonne/year biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) line at its existing complex at Panagarh in the eastern West Bengal state, the official said. The company expects to begin operations at the new plants by calendar year 2029, he added. Currently, DPFPL operates a 51,000 tonne/year BOPET line at the Panagarh complex. Separately, the company plans to set up two BOPP lines with a combined production capacity of 128,000 tonnes/year at Kathua in the Jammu Division of the Indian Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The project is expected to cost Rs12.4 billion and the company plans to begin operations at the plant by early 2027, the official said. The parent firm DVL currently operates two PET resin plants with a combined capacity of 696,000 tonne/year in West Bengal and northern Haryana state through its joint venture subsidiary IVL Dhunseri Petrochem Industries Ltd (IDPIL). IDPIL is an equal joint venture between Thailand’s Indorama Ventures Ltd (IVL) and DVL. The joint venture firm also operates a 540,000 tonne/year PET unit in Egypt. In September 2024, IDPIL formed a JV with Indian bottling company Varun Beverages to establish several greenfield PET recycling facilities in India. The joint venture has begun construction of two plants – one at Kathua and the second unit at Khurdha in Odisha state in eastern India. The plants are expected to become operational in 2025. ($1= Rs86.20)

HOUSTON (ICIS)–There is now 96% of the soybean acreage planted with the corn crop 97% emerged, according to the latest crop progress report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Corn emergence climbed slightly over the past week to stand at 97%, which is above the 96% from 2024 but trails the five-year average of 98%. For corn conditions, there is now 2% being listed as very poor, with 4% still poor and 24% being rated as fair. The crop ranked as good has decreased to 56%, with 14% as excellent. In the first update on corn silking, there is 4% of the crop at this crucial stage, which is equal to the 4% from 2024 and is just above the five-year average of 3%. Soybeans plantings have reached 96%, which matches the 96% rate achieved in 2024, but the current pace is just behind the five-year average of 97%. All the states surveyed are above 86% on their soybean sowings except for Tennessee at 84% and Kentucky at 82% completed. Soybean emergence is at 90%, which is ahead of the 89% level from the 2024 season and equal to the five-year average of 90%. In the first update on the crop blooming, the USDA said 8% of the acreage has reached this stage, which is just ahead of the 7% from 2024 and the five-year average of 7%. Soybean conditions were left unchanged with 2% very poor, 5% as poor, 27% fair, 56% as good and those as excellent at 10%. Cotton plantings are at 92%, with sorghum sowings 84% completed.

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Here are the top stories from ICIS News from the week ended 20 June. Colombia’s fiscal issues could hit plastics amid relentless China competition pressures Colombia’s plastics industry is managing to navigate through a turbulent period for the country’s macroeconomics and growing at over 3%, but the cabinet’s fiscal issues and intensifying Chinese imports pose risks, according to the president of trade group Acoplasticos. US PP recycler PureCycle to reach 1 billion lb/year capacity by 2030 PureCycle plans to reach 1 billion lb/year (454,000 tonnes/year) of capacity in the US by 2030, Europe and Asia, the US-base recycler of polypropylene (PP) said on Tuesday. Petchems spreads may be lower for longer post downturn, now expected to stretch to 2028 – Fitch The global petrochemicals downturn could potentially stretch to 2028, but the years-long crisis due to overcapacities may leave a lasting mark – lower for longer margins, according to a chemicals analyst at credit rating agency Fitch. Global PVC market braces for glut as protectionism rises and demand falters The global polyvinyl chloride (PVC) market is poised for a significant supply surplus, primarily driven by a surge in Chinese exports and an increasingly protectionist international trade environment, an industry analyst said on Thursday. Mexico’s chemicals imports increasingly hit by customs rules, adding to Manzanillo port crisis woes Mexico’s Port of Manzanillo is gradually recovering cargo handling capacity, which currently stands at around 60% of normal levels, according to the port’s authority, after weeks of operational disruptions caused by customs delays.