12:01 PM MST | January 26, 2012 | Lindsey Bewley
A U.S. propylene producer has nominated a 22-cts/lb increase for February contracts, market players say. The nomination is a 40% premium to current propylene contracts of 56 cts/lb for polymer-grade propylene (PGP) and 54.5 cts/lb for chemical-grade propylene...
http://www.chemweek.com/pricewatch/olefins/Propylene-Producer-Nominates-Price-Hike-for-February_40802.html
By James Delingpole Politics Last updated: January 29th, 2012
Enjoy it while it lasts
There's a great piece by David Rose in the Mail On Sunday nicely summing up what a lot of us here knew already: that the thing we really need to fear right now is not global warming but global cooling. And that, on current evidence, it's global cooling we're going to get.
The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.
The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.
Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.
Rose's piece comes hot on the heels of an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal signed by 16 distinguished scientists (proper ones: not "climate" "scientists") noting the continuing absence of ManBearPig:
Perhaps the most inconvenient fact is the lack of global warming for well over 10 years now. This is known to the warming establishment, as one can see from the 2009 "Climategate" email of climate scientist Kevin Trenberth: "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't." But the warming is only missing if one believes computer models where so-called feedbacks involving water vapor and clouds greatly amplify the small effect of CO2.
The lack of warming for more than a decade—indeed, the smaller-than-predicted warming over the 22 years since the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began issuing projections—suggests that computer models have greatly exaggerated how much warming additional CO2 can cause. Faced with this embarrassment, those promoting alarm have shifted their drumbeat from warming to weather extremes, to enable anything unusual that happens in our chaotic climate to be ascribed to CO2.
The fact is that CO2 is not a pollutant. CO2 is a colorless and odorless gas, exhaled at high concentrations by each of us, and a key component of the biosphere's life cycle. Plants do so much better with more CO2 that greenhouse operators often increase the CO2 concentrations by factors of three or four to get better growth. This is no surprise since plants and animals evolved when CO2 concentrations were about 10 times larger than they are today. Better plant varieties, chemical fertilizers and agricultural management contributed to the great increase in agricultural yields of the past century, but part of the increase almost certainly came from additional CO2 in the atmosphere.
All true, of course. All very, very true. Which does rather invite the question: when's the scam going to end? When are all those "climate" "scientists" at institutions like the University of Easy Access finally going to eat crow?
Actually this question is entirely rhetorical since I already know the answer: when hell freezes over.
Consider, for example, the fate of Dr David Viner – the University of Easy Access climatologist responsible for the most-read-ever story in the Independent when, in 2000, he famously deployed his meteorological expertise to tell us:
"Children just aren't going to know what snow is."
And where is "Nostradamus" Viner now?
Why, only in charge of disseminating climate change propaganda at taxpayers' expense for the British Council.
More than £3.5 million has gone on recruiting a worldwide network of young "climate activists" in over 70 countries to engage in climate change propaganda – what Marxists used to call agitprop – and to pressure their politicians to join the worldwide struggle. Under a programme called Challenge Europe, £1.1 million has been paid out to fund young "climate advocates" in 17 countries across Europe, including Britain itself. But £2.5 million has been spent on a more ambitious project to recruit a global network of 100,000 activists in 60 countries across the world, led by 1,300 young "International Climate Champions", to participate in "international peer networks, both in person and online, to share ideas, projects and experiences".
Of this sum, £303,093.24 went to China; £71,262.91 to Brazil; £53,006.25 to Japan; £70,132.88 to India (including £11,000 to Dr Pachauri's Teri institute); £77,507.89 to oil-rich Qatar; and £50,000 to the US. There was £120,000 for a dozen different countries in Africa, including £14,000 to fund climate champions in starving Zimbabwe.
So, to recap: a scientist from arguably Britain's most discredited university department – the Climatic Research Unit at the UEA – made a fool of himself and his employer by feeding to a newspaper wrongheaded disaster scenarios based on woefully inaccurate computer projections, thus lending spurious credibility to a massive media scaremongering campaign which has led to the squandering of billions of pounds on an entirely unnecessary scheme to "decarbonise" the UK economy. His reward for this has been to be granted a taxpayer-funded salary to go round the world spreading more abject nonsense about a mostly non-existent threat called "climate change."
Viner is not the exception: he is the rule. We have a right, I think, to start getting very angry indeed.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100133247/children-just-arent-going-to-know-what-sun-is/
27 January 2012 14:39 [Source: ICIS news]
LONDON (ICIS)--The European propylene contract price for February has been fully confirmed at €1,105/tonne ($1,454/tonne), up €90/tonne from January, two buyers and three producers said on Friday.
The initial propylene contract price was settled between one main producer and one non-integrated consumer. The same buyer followed the first settlement with a second manufacturer. A third producer also agreed the plus €90/tonne with a second buyer.
The contract price was agreed on a FD (free delivered) NWE (northwest Europe) basis.
A significant increase in the propylene contract price for February was widely expected because of intensified feedstock cost pressure since the last settlement.
The firmer tone in the upstream markets was further exacerbated by unfavourable exchange rate conditions, despite some slight rebound in the euro against the US dollar over the past week.
Sellers had been pushing for a three-digit hike for the February contract price, in view of spiking upstream costs and the urgent need to restore profitability at cracker level.
One of the settling manufacturers said that the upward move was also supported by an uptick in demand during January, which was expected to continue into February.
Some buyers reluctantly accepted that the recent jump in feedstock costs necessitated a substantial rise in the contract price, as well as reasonable to good demand, depending on derivative.
One of the buyers involved in the settlement said it was also hopeful that the increase in the contract price would help to kick-start much-needed margin improvement throughout the value chain. It added that it was looking to pass on downstream an increase larger than the propylene move.
Other buyers, had been looking for lower increases of €40-60/tonne, as they were concerned that such a steep increase would jeopardise downstream demand, which although slightly improved in January, is still fragile, amid ongoing macroeconomic concerns.
Sellers and some buyers considered this unrealistic, from a cost perspective. One customer added that its initial concerns about downstream export potential being dampened by a significant increase in the propylene contract price in Europe were being lessened by the firming sentiment in other regions, particularly in the US.
http://www.icis.com/Articles/2012/01/27/9527488/europe-february-propylene-confirmed-up-90t-at-1105t.html
Reuters – 47 minutes agoBy Matt Daily and Vaishnavi Bala
The deal is valued at $27.65 a share based on Thursday's closing prices, a 42 percent premium for Solutia shareholders. Shares of Solutia rose to $27.50 in trading before the market opened.
Eastman shares also rose in premarket trading, jumping roughly 8 percent in a sign that investors are happy with the deal.
Solutia, whose chemicals are used in products from tires to iPads, emerged from bankruptcy in 2008. Its shares fell 25 percent last year.
"Solutia has transformed itself into a financially strong, innovative performance materials and specialty chemicals company, with enviable market leading positions in virtually every market it serves," Eastman Chief Executive Officer Jim Rogers said in a statement announcing the deal.
After years of sluggish growth, Eastman is now expanding its lucrative specialty plastics and wood applications businesses, and its shares are up about 15 percent in the past 12 months.
The deal calls for Eastman to pay $22.00 in cash and 0.12 of a share for each Solutia share. Solutia has 122 million shares outstanding according to Thomson Reuters data, which would mean Eastman is paying about $2.69 billion in cash and $690 million in stock for the company.
The merger would add to earnings immediately, Eastman said, and the combined company would save about $100 million a year in costs by the end of 2013. The companies expect the deal to close around midyear.
Eastman said it now expects 2012 earnings to be around $5 a share, excluding acquisition-related costs and charges. It raised its 2013 earnings forecast to more than $6 per share.
Jefferies analyst Laurence Alexander said in a research note that the deal, along with Westlake Chemical's (NYSE:WLK - News) recent bid for Georgia Gulf Corp (NYSE:GGC - News), reflects a move toward consolidation among specialty chemical companies.
Alexander said that other companies generally thought to also be takeover candidates include Albemarle (NYSE:ALB - News), Celanese (NYSE:CE - News), Cytec (NYSE:CYT - News), Huntsman (NYSE:HUN - News), OMNOVA Solutions (NYSE:OMN - News), and W.R. Grace (NYSE:GRA - News).
Including debt, the Solutia deal is valued at about $4.7 billion, Eastman said. It plans to pay for Solutia with cash on hand, shares and debt.
The deal does not include a financing contingency, Eastman said, meaning the company would have to close on the deal even if it is not able to get banks to fund the purchase. Solutia would have to pay a break-up fee of $102 million if it walks away from the deal.
Eastman Chemical was formed in 1994, when Eastman Kodak (Other OTC:EKDKQ.PK - News) spun off its chemical business to help pay down debt. Kodak filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.
Citi (NYSE:C - News) and Barclays Capital (LSE:BARC.L - News) are financial advisers to Eastman, while Deutsche Bank Securities (DBKGn.DE) and Moelis & Co LLC advised Solutia.
(Reporting by Matt Daily in New York and Vaishnavi Bala in Bangalore, Additional reporting by Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Lisa Von Ahn, Dave Zimmerman)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Eastman-Chemical-buy-Solutia-rb-1462125638.html?x=0
Contract Manufacturing, Industry News
Expansion is to 50,000 square foot facility in nearby Farmington Hills, MI, consolidating into one place.
Font sizeManufacturing Group January 27, 2012
PolyFlex Products Inc., Livonia, MI, is moving its headquarters and manufacturing operations to a 50,000ft2 facility in Farmington Hills, MI.
Mark Kirchmer, PolyFlex, CEO, states “Our continued growth during the past decade had forced us to have operations in multiple facilities. This new facility allows us to consolodate everything under one roof while providing additional room for future expansion.
“We recently increased our overall injection molding capacity by 30% and also doubled our foamed urethane capacity with the addition of a new RIM machine. Moving forward, this new facility provides the expansion room needed for our forecasted growth.” he concludes.
The new address is: 23093 Commerce Drive, Farmington Hills, MI 48335.
PolyFlex Products engineers and manufactures plastic, urethane and rubber material handling products including custom returnable part handling containers, protective shipping containers, plus custom and standard dunnage systems. Its sister company, ThermoFlex, has capabilities for heavy-gauge thermoforming, injection molding and cast urethane molding operations.
http://www.onlinetmd.com/manufacturing-design-polyflex-products-012712.aspx
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