Ineos

Q1 profits fall by 11% following Lavera cracker outage / North America business benefits from low-cost feedstocks

Chinese olefins, polyolefins units licence Honeywell and LyondellBasell processes

Arkema to take EUR 125m charge for former PVC business / Six-month search for new owner

Plastics and rubber products output falls 2.6% in 2012 / Negative business trend continues into 2013 / World's largest per capita plastics producer / Federplast survey

Standard Thermoplastics PVC March 2013: Deep freeze in building sector allows only minimal cost pass-through for S-PVC base / Rising plasticiser prices drive S-PVC (P) compounds / April picture dominated by rollover, despite falling ethylene notation

Painful necessities

S-PVC prices roll over

China Engineering Thermoplastics February/March 2013: Feedstock prices down post-Chinese new year / Plans to hike ABS prices / PC also rising / Little movement for polyamides, PBT and POM

Caustic soda price increase

Joint venture with Sinopec YPC to build China's largest phenol facility / At least 400,000 t/y capacity to come on stream in 2015

Downturn in European olefins and polyolefins business hits 2012 operating profit / Cheaper feedstocks benefit US

PVC compounds business to be sold to Mitsubishi / Profile processing activities divested as planned

Higher European suspension PVC list prices

Former Vinyls Italia Ravenna plant now in liquidation / PVC production consigned to dustbin

Standard Thermoplastics Trend February 2013: Buyers turn a deaf ear on hike plans / Stable costs dampen momentum / Demand still slack / First upstream cost rises appear / Price spiral could turn upward

Standard Thermoplastics in January 2013: Price hikes come to a halt in mid-month / Producers still net reasonable margin gains / Slow start to demand / February likely similar

Standard Thermoplastics PVC January 2013: Producers manage to lift S-PVC base notations slightly / Matrix component in blends rising / Additives mostly stable / No movement for PVC pastes

Raising European suspension PVC list prices

PVC plant at Ravenna near permanent closure / Industrie Generali stumbles over feedstock question

Long-term shipping agreement with Evergas to transport US ethane to Norway

Follow-up: Clarifying intentions to shutter some European PVC output / Plans scheduled for completion in H1 2013

Plans to cease all PVC and VCM production at Runcorn / Response to slump in European PVC business / UK production to be focused in Newton Aycliffe

Standard Thermoplastics Trend January 2013: Slight margin improvement for polyolefin producers / No sharp order rise at month's begin / PVC and EPS still weak / PS moving in tandem with costs

Mito Polimeri to distribute product range across Italy

Compounding agreement with Resysta / Selling rice-based hybrid materials in northern Europe