News library
Subscribe to our full range of breaking news and analysis
Viewing 1-10 results of 57105
Crude Oil24-Jul-2024
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Japan’s manufacturing sector
contracted in July for the first time in three
months after the preliminary purchasing
managers’ index (PMI) fell to 49.2 from 50.0 in
June, au Jibun Bank said on Wednesday.
A PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion
while a lower number denotes contraction.
This decline signals a marginal deterioration
in Japanese manufacturing business conditions
in June, attributed to a reduction in both
output and new orders, au Jibun Bank said in a
statement on Wednesday.
The fall in new orders was the most significant
since February.
Despite an increase in employment levels,
sustained declines in new orders resulted in
spare capacity within the sector, and backlogs
of work decreased at the sharpest rate in four
months.
Input cost inflation remained high in July,
accelerating to its fastest pace since April
2023.
Japanese consumer inflation rose in June,
putting pressure on the Bank of Japan to raise
interest rates further, official data showed on
19 July.
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) in March hiked
interest rates for the first time in
17 years, ending eight years of negative
interest rates.
The BOJ expects that the recent rise in energy
prices and the phased removal of government
subsidies designed to control inflation will
likely accelerate the consumer price index
(CPI) increase throughout the fiscal year 2025,
offsetting the fading impact of previous import
cost increases on consumer prices.
Core inflation excluding fresh food, the BOJ’s
preferred measure, accelerated to 2.6% in June
from 2.5% in May and from 2.2% in April.
“Going forward, the government plans to renew
energy subsidy programmes from August to
October to counteract the heatwave during the
summertime,” Dutch banking and financial
services firm ING said in a statement.
“This could lower the overall inflation figure,
but as it is temporary, the Bank of Japan is
not expected to be too concerned.”
Potassium Chloride (MOP)23-Jul-2024
HOUSTON (ICIS)–Mining major BHP announced the
Jansen potash project in Saskatchewan has
reached a pivotal milestone with construction
having surpassed the 50% completion mark for
stage 1, with stage 2 now underway.
The company said the project should have first
production in 2026 with it holding the
potential to become a major source by the end
of this decade as it could eventually increase
Jansen’s total output to 16-17 million
tonnes/year of muriate of potash (MOP).
BHP total investment in Jansen is approximately
Canadian dollars (C$) 14 billion ($10.2
billion) with the firm saying this marks the
largest investment in its history, as well as
the largest private investment in Saskatchewan.
Having crossed the halfway mark, the focus now
shifts towards the completion of the mill
building and processing plant, port
construction, finalizing infrastructure and
gearing up to handover the project to
operations.
The company said efforts are also being
intensified to prepare the workforce with an
operations-ready mindset as the project gets
closer to having its first ore.
“Reaching the half-way milestone for JS1 is a
testament to the dedication of our Team Jansen
workforce, our contractors and procurement
partners, and the local and Indigenous
communities surrounding the Jansen area,” said
Karina Gistelinck, BHP asset president potash.
“Building one of the largest potash mines in
the world requires an all-hands-on-deck
approach, and the province has really come
together to make a project of this magnitude
possible. Delivering Jansen safely remains our
top priority as we get ready for Jansen
operations in 2026.”
C$1.00 = $0.73
Potassium Sulphate (SOP)23-Jul-2024
HOUSTON (ICIS)–Salt Lake Potash Limited (SO4)
has reached a significant milestone in
developing organic sulphate of potash (SOP) in
Australia as it has produced its first volumes
at its Lake Way project in Wiluna, Western
Australia.
With the project in development for over seven
years, SO4 was acquired by Sev.en Global
Investments in October 2022 and it has
subsequently made significant investments in
all aspects of the production process.
This includes the installation of new flotation
units in the process plant which has been
fundamental to successfully managing the
diverse feedstock from the pond network.
The process plant remains in the commissioning
phase, but officials said the production of SOP
after years of effort provides significant
proof of the operating ability of the system.
“This important step confirms the capability of
the SO4 team to conceptualize, design,
construct and operate the SOP mining and
production facilities and achieve world-class
SOP quality parameters,” said Mark Sykes,
Sev.en Global Investments, Australian country
manager.
“We are proud of the entire team, who have
demonstrated a high level of commitment
and endurance to reach a key milestone.”
Sev.en Global said it is looking forward to
bringing the project to full production and
establishing itself in the market to supply
Australian agriculture and global markets with
high-quality sustainable fertilizer suitable
for use in organic farming.
Global News + ICIS Chemical Business (ICB)
See the full picture, with unlimited access to ICIS chemicals news across all markets and regions, plus ICB, the industry-leading magazine for the chemicals industry.
Ethylene23-Jul-2024
SAO PAULO (ICIS)–Brazil’s trade deficit in
chemicals narrowed by 9% in H1 2024 to $21.7
billion on the back of lower priced imports
entering the country, according to chemicals
trade group Abiquim.
In the January-June period, Brazil imported
$28.8 billion of chemicals, down 7.5% year on
year, while exports stood at $7.1 billion, down
4.8%.
In H1 2023, the chemicals trade deficit stood
at $23.7 billion and, for the full-year, it
stood
at $47.0 billion, the second highest figure
in the past 35 years, according to Abiquim.
Although the deficit narrowed, Abiquim was not
pleased and linked the improvement to lower
priced imports which, it said, continue denting
domestic producers’ market share.
“This apparent improvement in the chemicals
trade deficit is directly related to imports
with prices 15.3% lower than in the first half
of 2023, leveraging purchases of products on
the international market at prices largely
below the production costs practiced in
Brazil,” said the trade group.
“These products come mainly from Asian
countries, whose competitiveness has been
sustained by Russian raw materials purchased at
favorable prices due to the war in east
Europe.”
Abiquim has demanded high import tariffs on
several chemicals for the past few months; in
an interview with ICIS,
its director general Andre Passos said higher
tariffs were only one of the three legs of a
wider plan to protect domestic producers’
market share.
In June, Brazil’s chemicals trade unions joined
Abiquim to demand higher
tariffs.
“To show the worrying sings, it is enough to
highlight the volume in tonnes of these imports
[entering Brazil] in the first half at 27.9
million tonnes, up 9.1% year on year.
Highlights include the aggressive increases in
thermoplastic resins imports (up 41.2%),
thermosetting resins (26.8%), intermediates for
thermosetting resins (35.8%), intermediates for
synthetic fibers (22.1%) and other organic
chemical products (15.2%),” said the trade
group.
“This scenario is a serious threat to the
national production of chemical products and
has, above all, deteriorated the level of
utilization rates [which stood
in May at a record low of 58%]. Some
companies are considering hibernating plants,
shutdowns, and even deactivation of units.”
Polyvinyl Chloride23-Jul-2024
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–India will cut import duties
for methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) by
2.5 percentage points to 5.0% effective 24
July, with plans to review the country’s
overall tariff structure in the next six
months.
MDI was among raw materials identified by the
Indian government on which custom duties will
be reduced.
India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman
announced the changes to the country’s Basic
Customs Duty (BCD) – a tax levied on imported
goods at the time of their entry into the
country – in her presentation of India’s
national budget for the fiscal year ending
March 2025 before parliament.
HIGHER DUTIES FOR SOME
PRODUCTSConversely, the minister
said that the customs duty for polyvinyl
chloride (PVC) flex films/flex banners will be
raised to 25% from 10% currently starting 24
July, “to curb their imports”.
Flex banners are commonly used for outdoor
advertising as billboards.
“PVC flex banners are non-biodegradable and
hazardous for environment and health,”
Sitharaman said.
The customs duty on ammonium nitrate will also
be raised to 10% from 7.5% from 24 July “to
support existing and new capacities in the
pipeline”, she said.
EXEMPTIONS FOR CRITICAL
MINERALSSitharaman also proposed
full exemption of 25 critical minerals from
import duties, a cut in duty rates for two
other products in the same category.
“Minerals such as lithium, copper, cobalt and
rare earth elements are critical for sectors
like nuclear energy, renewable energy, space,
defense, telecommunications, and high-tech
electronics,” she said.
“This [cut in import duty] will provide a major
fillip to the processing and refining of such
minerals and help secure their availability for
these strategic and important sectors,”
Sitharaman said.
As for the electronics sector, the finance
minister proposed to remove the BCD on
oxygen-free copper for the manufacture of
resistors.
GOV’T TO REVIEW CUSTOMS DUTY
STRUCTUREOver the next six
months, the Indian government will conduct a
thorough review of its customs duty rate
structure, Sitharaman said.
“I propose to undertake a comprehensive review
of the rate structure over the next six months
to rationalise and simplify it for ease of
trade, removal of duty inversion and reduction
of disputes,” she said.
“We will continue our efforts to simplify
taxes, improve taxpayer services, provide tax
certainty and reduce litigation while enhancing
revenues for funding the development and
welfare schemes of the government.”
It was not immediately clear how the revised
BCD structure will impact implementation of
import certifications of various chemicals
under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
BIS certification for some chemicals has been
extended many times
since they were introduced in 2019-20 to allow
domestic end-user industries more time to
adhere to the quality-control orders (QCO).
Focus article by Nurluqman
Suratman
Thumbnail image: At the Vallarpadam
Terminal in Kochi, Kerala, India. 2014 (By Olaf
Kruger/imageBROKER/Shutterstock)
Polyols23-Jul-2024
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–India will cut import duties
for methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) by
2.5 percentage points to 5.0% effective 24
July, the country’s finance minister Nirmala
Sitharaman announced on Tuesday.
MDI was among raw materials identified by the
Indian government on which custom duties will
be reduced.
Sitharaman announced the changes to the
country’s Basic Customs Duty (BCD) – a tax
levied on imported goods at the time of their
entry into the country – in her presentation
before parliament of India’s national budget
for the fiscal year ending March 2025.
Conversely, the minister said that the customs
duty for polyvinyl chloride flex films/flex
banners will be raised sharply from 10%
currently to 25% from 24 July “to curb their
imports”.
Flex banners are commonly used for outdoor
advertising as billboards.
“PVC flex banners are non-biodegradable and
hazardous for environment and health,”
Sitharaman said.
For ammonium nitrate, the custom duty will be
raised to 10% from 7.5% from 24 July “to
support existing and new capacities in the
pipeline”, she said.
(adds paragraphs 4-7)
Polyols23-Jul-2024
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–India will cut import duties
for methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) by
2.5 percentage points to 5.0% effective 24
July, the country’s finance minister Nirmala
Sitharaman announced on Tuesday.
MDI was among the raw materials identified by
the Indian government on which custom duties
will be reduced.
Sitharaman announced the changes to the
country’s Basic Customs Duty (BCD) – a tax
levied on imported goods at the time of their
entry into the country – in her presentation
before parliament of India’s national budget
for the fiscal year ending March 2025.
Polyethylene23-Jul-2024
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Click
here to see the latest blog post on Asian
Chemical Connections by John Richardson.
Conventional wisdom suggests that the
petrochemicals cycle may have bottomed out as
the prospects of interest rate cuts increase.
There are signs of recovery in the Europe. And
even in a high inflationary environment, the US
consumer kept on spending with unemployment at
record lows.
This, in my view, is a misreading of the data.
Because of the disproportionate influence of
China, what happens elsewhere doesn’t really
matter in the short- to medium-term.
China had a 22% share of the global population
in 1992 and a 9% share of global polymers
demand. By the end of this year, ICIS forecasts
that China’s share of the global population
will have slipped to 18%, but its share of
global polymers demand will have risen to 40%.
Too much global capacity was planned on the
basis of China’s petrochemicals demand growth
being at 6-8% per annum over the long term,
whereas 1-4% now appears to be more likely.
China’s petrochemicals capacity growth was
underestimated because of cost-per-tonne
economics used to assess projects. History
teaches us is that national strategic objective
also come into play.
One can argue, as the Rhodium Group does in an
18 July 2024 research paper, that China’s
economic growth may never return to previous
levels. This would mean no return to the
double-digit annual growth rates we saw in
petrochemicals demand during the Petrochemicals
Supercycle.
In today’s main chart, I kept to our base case
assumptions on global polypropylene (PP) virgin
production growth between 2024 and 2030, which
is almost the same as demand growth. I then
manually reduced capacity growth until I got
back to the historically very healthy operating
rate of 87% (operating rates being production
divided by capacity).
(What applies to PP applies to other
petrochemicals and polymers. The ICIS data for
other products suggest similar steep reductions
in capacity growth versus our base to get back
to the long-term history of operating rates).
This led me to the conclusion that global PP
capacity growth would need to be just 1.6m
tonnes a year versus 5m tonnes a year under our
base case. Under our base case, we see global
operating rates averaging just 76% in
2024-2030.
Capacity growth of just 1.6m tonnes a year
versus our base case would require substantial
capacity closures in some regions. Closures are
never easy and take considerable time because
links with upstream refineries, environmental
clean-up and redundancy costs – and the
reluctance to be the “first plant out” in case
markets suddenly recover.
The sale of rationalisation suggested by just
1.6m tonnes a year of capacity growth therefore
suggests no full recovery in PP and in other
petrochemicals until, I am guessing, 2026.
Editor’s note: This blog post is an opinion
piece. The views expressed are those of the
author, and do not necessarily represent those
of ICIS.
Potassium Chloride (MOP)22-Jul-2024
HOUSTON (ICIS)–Railroad Canadian Pacific
Kansas City (CPKC) confirmed it had a
derailment incident involving a train carrying
potash volumes on the evening of 21 July, but
there were no injuries and no public safety
threat.
The company said multiple cars of a train
carrying potash derailed around 5pm CST near
Gull Lake, Saskatchewan, which is about 175
miles from Regina.
CPKC through a spokesperson that there were
approximately 18 cars involved which were
carrying unknown quantities of potash.
CPKC crews remain at the site working on the
clean-up with the cause of the derailment
currently under investigation.
The accident had blocked access in and out of
Gull Lake from the highway, but the company did
say that the railroad crossing on Provincial
Highway 37 was now open.
Contact us
Partnering with ICIS unlocks a vision of a future you can trust and achieve. We leverage our unrivalled network of industry experts to deliver a comprehensive market view based on independent and reliable data, insight and analytics.
Contact us to learn how we can support you as you transact today and plan for tomorrow.