Looking East for Chemicals blog shifting to ICIS platform

My Looking East for Chemicals blog is shifting to become an ICIS blog. Please add the following link to your favourites: http://www.icis.com/blogs/east-european-chemicals/. Thanks for your interest. I hope to give you even more on chemical industry strategy and events in central and eastern Europe and elsewhere on the new site. All Blogger entries have been transferred. Many thanks from Will Beacham, ICIS Chemical Business Deputy Editor and London Bureau Chief.

Central and Eastern Europe chemicals industry call for ideas

I'm currently planning a special issue of ICIS Chemical Business magazine focussed on the central and eastern Europe and Russian chemicals industry. Please send me any good ideas for articles to explore this fascinating region.
I'm thinking about CEO interviews, Poland privatisation update, BorsodChem, Spolchemie, Russian chemical projects update and much more.

World map of ethylene cracker projects

My colleague, journalist Anna Jagger, has just created a free-to-view map of the world's major ethylene cracker projects. It is up-to-date and useful. Contact the blog for a copy as it is too large a file to download onto blogger.

ICIS pricing launches Africa polymers report

This blogger is a journalist working for ICIS, the global chemical intelligence group. I write chemical-industry news and analysis for the magazine ICIS Chemical Business. But the largest part of the ICIS group is its pricing service.

This has just launched new weekly price reports for polypropylene and polyethylene in Africa. This is a really small but fast-growing and dynamic market. With increasing chemical industry activity, there is now a need for accurate pricing information.

The new reports provide price assessments for polyethylene and polypropylene, CFR north and southern Africa, FD South Africa, plus commentary on the west and eastern African markets.

If any readers would like to request sample copies of the reports go to tinyurl.com/nbtj5u or alternatively email your request to sales.uk@icis.com.

Picture credit http://www.picapp.com/Search.aspx?term=africa&cats=Creative&pre=C&frompage=BetaHomePage5&region=10

PKN Orlen may breach loan covenants

PKN Orlen is in trouble again. Constant changes of leadership mean the group has real trouble following a set strategy. Political interference is the key probelm. A change of government means a change at the top for Orlen.

According to ICIS news, quoting ING Bank, Orlen

"could improve its financial health by selling its strategic oil inventories to the Polish state and earning capital on a sale of its 24.4% stake in Polish mobile operator Polkomtel telecom. However, both transactions were unlikely to occur this year, meaning “2009-10 is likely to be challenging for Orlen operationally, and we expect the outlook to worsen", the bank said."