Nov 11
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Surfactants Monthly – October 2023

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PIPOC Edition This week, we’re at PIPOC in Malaysia and so have delayed publication of the blog so that we include some impressions from the event. Some dates for your diary: First up the upcoming Surfactants Business Essentials Course takes place November 20 – 22nd. It’s the online version targeted at hit Singapore at 6PM (local time), The UAE at 2PM, London at 10AM and for those really keen, New York at 5AM. Yes, I’ll be in NY. Next up – the great World Surfactants Conference in Jersey City: May 9th and 10th (Training on the 8th). The website is not up yet, but please save the date. It is going to be huge! Now for the news, much of which comes courtesy of ICIS. I subscribe and you should too. US October ethylene oxide (EO) contracts fell from September on lower feedstock ethylene costs.  The October EO contract price came in around  59 – 61 cents/lb. Supply is a bit tight as Dow’s Plaquemine site remains down, while derivative demand into the housing and auto sectors is being pressured by high interest rates and a general economic slowdown. According to ICIS, Asia’s fatty alcohol 1214 market saw some increased…

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Oct 03
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Surfactants Monthly – September 2023

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As regular readers know, we like to artfully weave into these blog postings, subtle promos for various business interests of the author. Most of the time, you hardly notice them. But I actually want you to notice this one. So here we are: Shameless plug for the upcoming Surfactants Business Essentials Course (Virtual Version) produced and taught by me. In partnership, of course with the great I.C.I.S. The next 3-part course mini-series starts up Thanksgiving week (in the US); November 20 – 22 in the rest of the world. We hit Singapore at 6PM (local time), The UAE at 2PM, London at 10AM and for those really keen to pack in a full pre-Thanksgiving professional enrichment, New York at 5AM. If someone could join me in this pre-dawn classroom in the US Eastern timezone, I will buy you a coffee! We go back to first principles – What is a hydrophobe? A hydrophile?.. and where do they come from? And we dig deep into the complex economic drivers in key supply chains like fatty alcohols and ethylene oxide. We talk about your favorite companies – customers, suppliers and maybe even your own employer. We’ve been running this course for over…

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Sep 04
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Surfactants Monthly – August 2023

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Happy Labor Day. Not sure what that’s supposed to mean, really. Perhaps – be happy that you are not being forced to work on this day. So the greeting applies only to those not working shifts or in many service industries or in other blighted corners of the economy where workers are working because they have to and are most decidedly not happy about it. Fine. I recently hosted for P2, an Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Self Driving Labs (AI/ML/SDL) workshop at the University of Toronto in partnership with the recently formed and generously financed, Acceleration Consortium there. My opening remarks went like this: I have a newspaper cutting in my study that talks about my great-grandfather who went down the pit (coal-mine ) at the age of 9 to get coal out of hard to reach pockets. He managed to raise a family despite the less than  optimal work-life balance. His son, my grandfather, lived then in more enlightened times and went down the pit at age 13. He also managed to raise a family and my father avoided the pit altogether. He went into an office at age 16 and was working when the weekend as…

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Aug 06
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Surfactants Monthly – July 2023

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It’s a hot blog summer and we are unashamed about it. While our peers in publishing, like The Economist, are putting out a summer double issue (ie skipping an edition), we’re grinding it out in the hot humid months, giving you supreme value for your subscription dollars. So, we have the news then music, followed by personal notes. The News As always, credit for almost all our news goes to my partners, the great ICIS. I’m a long-time subscriber. Why not you? The news theme for this week is uptick (price wise not necessarily sales or volume-wise.) Not sure why or what this means but it’s there. Finally a rebound in Asia prices as ICIS great Helen Yan reports that the Asia fatty alcohols ethoxylates (FAE) market continues to face tightened supply and escalating cost of feedstock fatty alcohol mid-cuts C12-14. Aug-Sept plant turnarounds tighten supply Feedstock C12-14 mid-cuts fatty alcohols spot prices surging since mid-June China stimulus measures to boost regional demand On 3 August, FAE mols 7,9 spot prices were assessed at $1,450/tonne CIF (cost, insurance & freight) SE (southeast) Asia, up $25/tonne from the previous week, ICIS data showed.  A regional 85,000 tonne/year FAE plant is scheduled…

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Jul 02
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Surfactants Monthly – June 2023

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Independence Day Edition My first American fireworks: Princeton, NJ, July 4th 1985. We sit on the bonnet (hood) of the car, leaning back on the windscreen (windshield) looking up, waiting for something to happen. A crummy high-school band starts up and a choir or whatever gets going – Oh-oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light. Makes no sense. Apparently the Yanks have an even more boring national anthem than we do. What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last.. More nonsense. How much of this do we have to sit through before the fireworks? Whose broad stripes and bright stars. Good grief. This is bollocks. Shoulda brought more beer. O’er the ramparts.. Ramparts eh.. there’s that wine in the boot but it’s probably warm by now – anyway it’s a work day tomorrow, flying out 6AM so.. better just make this one last. And the rockets’ red glaaaaare… BOOM BOOM WHOOSH.. Wow ****! The bombs bursting in aaaiiiiirr… BANG, BANG, B A N G Bloody ******’ ‘ell… BANG ! Now that’s fireworks, baby! “Is that the national anthem?” “Er.. yeah..” “Oh – Frickin’ Wild. Is it always like this?” “Erm .. yeah, well on July 4th…..

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Jun 15
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Surfactants Monthly – May (and a chunk of June) 2023

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Greetings from Rome! Welcome to our CESIO edition. If you’re looking for a summary of the presentations and discussions at CESIO, sorry, we don’t do that here. You should have bought a ticket and shown up. It was an outstanding event, well produced and organized. Kudos to CESIO president, Tony Gough. Alex, Chantal and the rest of the team. I’ll tell you about my experience there if you’re interested. I had the usual crazy title for my talk and once again the organizers kindly indulged me with a speaking slot to kick off the business track on Wednesday morning. Dinosaur eats Unicorn was the paper title that got folks in the room at 8.30AM after a late night prior at the gala dinner. Session chair, Felix Mueller, reminded me that he introduced me on my first occasion as a CESIO speaker in 2011. He also reminded the audience that, according to my last talk in Munich, 2019, I was friends with Debbie Harry (Blondie) and that my talks are invariably interesting, thought provoking and entertaining. So.. no pressure then. We kicked off with a snippet of Blue Öyster Cult (Godzilla – Dinosaur – geddit?) to ramp up the dopamine in…

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May 14
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Surfactants Monthly April (& early May) 2023

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Greetings from Jersey City. We were back,on the top floor of the Hyatt with stunning views all round of the skylines of Manhattan and Jersey City.  Our conference concluded on Friday May 5th, and, while we generally eschew event summaries here, I do feel motivated to relay some of what the ICIS reporters said about the proceedings. Joe Chang, Melissa Wheeler and Lucas Hall each reported on and spoke at the conference. A gathering of the masters of the surfactant universe if ever there was one. On Thursday afternoon, we heard from IP Specialities’, Martin Herrington, a master of the oleochemical universe, who said that global oleochemicals markets face short- and long-term challenges as players grapple with high-cost inventories in a weak demand environment alongside expanding  biofuels policies and trade regulations..  While oleochemical prices are down alongside depressed demand conditions globally, many companies continue to sit on high-cost inventories, increasing their risk of insolvency.  Longer-term, supply chain reliability remains a concern following several unexpected plant disruptions within close proximity to one another.  Expanding biofuels policies, namely the expansion of renewable diesel capacity in the US market, raise concerns over the viability of traditional biofuels like biodiesel as well as the…

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Apr 08
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Surfactants Monthly – March 2023

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March (and early April) 2023 We’ve got some great news as reported from AFPM in San Antonio, by ICIS, this month. Also – your last chance to register for the May surfactant super-conference in Jersey City. I want to induce some serious FOMO here. If you’re not there, you’ll be missing out big time. So: Register Here. And the music this month is inspired partly by the season and partly by what I listen to while penning these pages. I’m not sure what to make of it either, but there it is – at the end of the blog. If you’re motivated to go down a YouTube rabbit hole after listening to one of these selections, then great. I recommend it. The News: Not sure how much importance to place on this, but -OQ Chemicals has launched the first commercially available isononanoic acid made from both bio-based and circular feedstocks, the producer announced.  The new product has over 70% bio-based content, providing manufacturers with a sustainable alternative to conventional isononanoic acid to meet growing demand for carboxylic acids.  OQ Chemicals recently invested in capacity expansion for its carboxylic acids production in Germany and aims to make its large-scale production processes…

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Mar 06
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Surfactants Monthly – February 2023

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We divide these blogs, usually, into parts and I allow you to scroll to the item or items of interest, which may be the news or the music section. Today however, you have to read this commercial message before moving on. Don’t even try to scroll down. The screen is locked until you read and act on the following: Yes, it’s the May 4 – 5th ICIS / Neil A Burns World Surfactants Conference in Jersey City, NJ. It falls directly after SCC Suppliers Day and so if you are in town, come on by. We will have big familiar names like BASF and Sasol, along with some brand new ones like Ruby Bio and the Consumer Brand Association. Plus some secret special guests that I can’t yet reveal. But wait, there’s more. I have a code for you that will save you some money off of an already low price. Just use this MKTSTDNBB5 at checkout. (Always wanted to say that..) So.. did you click on the link, register and use the code? Yes? Good OK – so you can scroll on down now to the news and music sections if you like. The News Right at the start…

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Feb 05
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Surfactants Monthly January 2023

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Greetings from Orlando. It’s good to see the ACI annual meeting back to full strength this year and to catch up with old friends and meet some new folks too. As usual, we don’t report hearsay and tittle-tattle here on the blog. All’s we have here in the news section is what is already in the public domain, usually reported by my friends and partners at ICIS. If you really want to hear the latest ACI gossip, then go the meeting. As I always, say – you gotta be there! . One thing I did pick up this week, is that we have a lot of new readers of the blog. Welcome! We do music here also. It’s usually at the end and so you can skip it if you like. But you shouldn’t. The musical choices of this blog have been rated as impeccable by an independent global panel of experts, which I quickly assembled in Orlando over the past few days. Now you know. The other thing you should know as a new reader is that I relentlessly, but transparently, shill for my other interests here. One such interest is the upcoming World Surfactant Conference coming up, May…

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Jan 02
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Surfactants Monthly – December 2022

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Happy New Year my dear readers. We have the month’s news and some end of year music picks. This month’s promised fiction will come to you via a link at the end of the blog to a site I like which is publishing some interesting short stories. Now – straight into the news, which, as always, comes to us courtesy of our good friends at ICIS. Of course, I can’t kick off the year without mentioning that the 13th World Surfactants Conference, will again be held in Jersey City at the Hyatt on May 4th and 5th. Register here https://events.icis.com/website/8544/ OK – now the news. ICIS has published some good end of year summaries and I’ll excerpt some of the surfactant relevant ones here. First up, according to ICIS the European fatty alcohols market is rather subdued looking ahead to 2023.  Supply is widely available, while downstream demand from the ethoxylates market is weak for the first quarter.  “Ethoxylates demand is very poor […] It’s clear the demand is a strong reduction,” said a producer. Feedstocks have also trended downwards in recent months. Supply, demand and palm kernel oil (PKO) costs are the main factors discussed in Q1 contract negotiations….

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Dec 01
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Surfactants Monthly – November 2022

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It’s strictly business this month, with little time for music or general chit- chat. We’re saving that all for next month with a short story and some musical exploration – maybe combined, let’s see. The news is also somewhat slim. Nothing to read into that, really, just natural variation, I think. So now – straight to the News, which as usual is largely courtesy of our good friends at ICIS. Encouraging news out of Louisiana as Sasol reported that it expects to complete repair work at its Ziegler alcohol unit at Lake Charles, Louisiana, by the end of the first quarter of 2023, subject to delivery of equipment. The plant was damaged in a fire on 15 October. Sasol was able to restart alcohol production at 50% utilisation during November, while isolating the damaged section for repairs, it said. The timeline to resuming full production rates depends on completion of the repair work. The fire’s impact on production prompted Sasol to declare force majeure on supply of US Ziegler alcohols and derivative products in October. The force majeure will be lifted as soon as production rates and inventory levels improve, the company said. Meanwhile in Asia, the alcohol ethoxylate picture continues to…

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Oct 30
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Surfactants Monthly – October 2022

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Surfactants Monthly – October 2022 I’ve been watching Derry Girls on Netflix. Set in Northern Ireland in the 90’s, it’s a comedy that relates the exploits of a group of Catholic schoolgirls in Derry / Londonderry / Derry / Londonderry / Derry – well depending on who you are….you know? Each half-hour episode manages to be funny, poignant and thought provoking. It’s the time of the peace process and the uneasy days leading up to a sort of détente between the factions. Bomb threats were still real and the Protestant and Catholic lives seemed like two worlds co-existing in the same time-space and only tangling at the edges with explosive results. It’s worth a try although viewers whose native language is American may need subtitles. Some of the contrasts are heart-wrenching. The protagonists, doing a silly dance as part of a school play, oblivious, while outside the road is closed by soldiers and their parents watch in silence on the telly as a bomb is defused. Some of the set-ups are ridiculous but are accepted without question by the viewer. One of the girl’s cousins, a boy visiting from England, is readily enrolled into the girls’ school by the headmistress,…

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Oct 07
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Surfactants Monthly – September 2022

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Surfactants Monthly  –  September 2022 This month’s blog is one which chronicles, almost uniformly, a downward trend in pricing. This you may cheer you or not, depending on your perspective. There is no doubt that supply chain tightness is loosening and that is a good thing. Prices will find their own level in the coming months. I recently paid, through gritted teeth, an invoice on which was listed a “supply chain surcharge”. Take it off already! It’s annoying. The roller-coaster has surely turned. We’ll jump straight into the news now and, if we have time, maybe get into some music at the end. As always, a big shoutout and thanks to my friends and colleagues at ICIS for the news. I subscribe and you should too. At the end of the month and, as I think we predicted in last month’s blog, September US ethylene oxide (EO) contracts were assessed at 64.55 cents/lb ($1,423.07/tonne) The decrease in EO contract prices was due to a decrease in October ethylene contract prices. The supply of EO remains tight following a planned maintenance on a Seadrift, Texas plant, however, the market is expected to balance in Q4. Meanwhile in Europe European ethylene oxide…

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Sep 04
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Surfactants Monthly – August 2022

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Not a lot of news this summer month, so music and musings are upfront and the news comes last. Skip if you must. The sections are clearly labeled. Music I’ve been listening to Wishbone Ash a bit recently. It’s been 50 years since Argus, their third album, was released in I think April of ’72. It was named album of the year by Sounds the weekly music newspaper. Any of our UK readers remember Sounds? There were 3 music papers back then: Melody Maker – for the intelligent and sophisticated, covered jazz, blues and rock. New Musical Express – for the sophisticated, covered the hip and new wave. Sounds – for those of us who identified as neither (intelligent nor sophisticated) covered the rest, including heavy metal, punk and such. I was a proud, card-carrying Sounds reader, of course. I have to admit, if you care, that I was not a fan, at the time in 1972. This was the music of people’s older brothers, like Gordon’s brother John. Cool, different and with incredible album art that suggested something other-worldly. Something disconnected from coal-dust, fog, rain, baked beans, rock-hard porkpies, greasy chips, stale beer, smoke, times-tables, spelling tests, strikes, power-cuts,…

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