Europe top stories: weekly summary

LONDON (ICIS)–Here are some of the top stories from ICIS Europe for the week ended 8 December.

Oil and gas majors will transform petrochemicals landscape
The climate challenge-led ‘energy transition’ has morphed into an ‘energy transformation’ that has huge implications for the petrochemical industry.

Europe chemicals prices continue monthly gains in October, but annual declines more substantial
European chemicals prices generally rose by more than general producer prices in October, according to the latest data from EU statistical agency Eurostat.

Europe’s OX demand stays muted despite Q4 contract price reductions
Europe’s orthoxylene (OX) market is likely to remain muted until the start of 2024 as downstream demand shows little signs of recovery despite two consecutive contract price cuts agreed in Q4.

Brenntag readies for 2026 options as commodity, specialties disentanglement continues
Brenntag intends to spend the next two years repositioning its two core businesses into more autonomous entities before taking the next strategic steps for its operations, with a more defined split among the options being considered, according to the CEO of the distributor.

IPEX: Global spot index drops as soft demand, lower feedstock costs drive prices down
The global spot ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) fell for the fourth consecutive week as softer upstream costs and subdued underlying demand keep pushing chemical prices down across all regions.