Jan 05
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December 2019 – Monthly Review

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December 2019 – Monthly Review Strictly the news this month. If I have time, I’ll publish a year-end editorial some time in the coming week. As always, most of the news content here comes courtesy of ICIS and what you see here is just a fraction of what is available if you subscribe. I do and you should consider it also: (https://subscriber.icis.com/). End of commercial. Right at the beginning of December, Huntsman told ICIS that its propylene oxide (PO) and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) units remained down ]following an explosion at a neighbouring butadiene (BD) complex owned by TPC Group. Huntsman’s PO plant has a capacity of 240,000 tonnes/year, and it produces tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA) as a byproduct, according to the ICIS Supply & Demand Database. TBA is dehydrated to produce MTBE. Huntsman’s MTBE capacity is 650,000 tonnes/year. “Although the PO/MTBE unit was not damaged, it remains idled for the time being because of certain dependencies with the adjacent site that was damaged by the fire,” Huntsman said in a statement. The company did not elaborate on the nature of those dependencies. Huntsman is waiting to get access to the TPC site and is reviewing alternative ways to bring…

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Dec 15
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Surfactants Monthly Review – November 2019

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November 2019 – Surfactants Monthly We’re delayed this week due to a last minute trip to Europe. In-flight wi-fi just wasn’t co-operating to get this done on the plane. And a cold and a board meeting and the dog ate my homework! November itself was marked by a trip to Singapore and then Malaysia, where PIPOC made it’s biannual appearance in KL. This time, P2 Science did a PIPOC takeover with a triple header appearance by Paul Anastas, Patrick Foley (the two scientific co-founders of the company) and me. More later on this interesting few days. I want to talk about Keira Knightley, because she has something to teach us. First some context setting. This month in surfactants, federal and state governments loom large and that is not a good thing. As readers know, my view is that governments looming large in any commercial field is generally not such a good thing. Here’s one of my favorite video clips on that: ICIS reported that a new bipartisan [uh oh – watch out!] congressional task force will address the safety of ethylene oxide (EO) emissions. Representatives from the US states of Illinois and Georgia have formed the group to urge the…

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Nov 03
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Surfactants Monthly Review – October 2019

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Surfactants Review- October 2019 October was notable for a few things. First for our 3rd Indian surfactants conference in Mumbai. Second for the denoument of a major (non-surfactant related) scandal I’ve been following (WeWork) and third for the completion of a major project I’ve been working on, which it looks like I won’t be able to talk about until next month’s blog, because the actual press release isn’t out yet. So – this just to remind you that we don’t publish behind the scenes news or gossip here. Everything here is already public domain. Of course, the opinions, I like to think, are original, but even there, we stand on the shoulders.. right? Nonetheless we have a few interesting snippets of news for the month. Here we go. First some economics: All businesses involved in international trade should be aware of the wider impact of the current trade war on economic activity. The Wall Street Journal noted in an opinion piece titled “Adam Smith’s Revenge” a few days ago “The great counterfactual of the Trump Presidency is how much faster the economy would be growing without the damage of his trade protectionism. Wednesday’s report of lackluster 1.9% growth in the…

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Sep 28
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Surfactants Monthly Review – September 2019

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September Monthly Surfactants Review Last month’s blog attracted a lot of very positive feedback. Thanks for that. The story of Tony Service certainly seems to have inspired many people and that makes me feel very good, for obvious reasons. Now, Tony was in the commercial field. There are clearly Tonys or Tonyas or Rishis out there who are in manufacturing, finance, R&D, whatever. Have you ever known one? If you’d like to share the story, I and the blog readers would love to hear it, I’m sure. Please get in touch. Let’s see if we can make this a periodic feature. What would you be like if you worked to become the Tony Service of your field / industry / hobby?   Now the news; provided largely by the good folks at ICIS. If you like this information, you should subscribe to their service, like I do. The month started with news of the Q4 fatty alcohol contract negotiations from ICIS’s Judith Taylor as she reported that US mid-cut fatty alcohols were mixed as contract negotiations were slowly emerging for Q4 business. Judith noted that several producers were looking at potential rollover from Q3 prices. A few buyers considered this…

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Sep 02
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Surfactant Monthly Review – August 2019

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Monthly Blog August 2019 Back to work. Back to School. Back on the Road. September. Time to execute what you’ve been thinking about all summer. If it you don’t do it now, it won’t get done, because you don’t want it enough. Let someone else who wants it succeed… sorry I’ve been listening to motivational lo-fi hip hop all summer. It gets a bit intense. More about that later. Some folks didn’t wait until the end of the summer. Oxiteno’s parent, Ultrapar is now looking at opportunities for investments in Brazil’s refining sector. The company,during Ultrapar’s Q2 earnings call, pointed to changes in Brazil’s oil and gas value chain in the wake of Petrobras’ exit from the refining business, along with divestments of Petrobras natural gas infrastructure assets. Any investment by Ultrapar would depend on opportunities to integrate refining with its downstream fuels distribution and storage businesses. The company is active in fuels and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution, and in bulk liquids storage – through its Ipiranga, Utragaz and Utracargo businesses. As for Oxiteno, it looks like they had a bit of a rough quarter. Figures are in millions of reais.  As ICIS reported right at the beginning of…

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Jul 28
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Surfactants Monthly Review – July 2019

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Surfactants Monthly – July 2019 Happy summer. It’s hot and humid, as it should be, on the East Coast. Down the shore, there’s the occasional cool breeze and chilled brew to provide relief. By the way, did you know there are some tremendous beers being brewed now in NJ? Kane and Icarus are world class, in my amateur opinion. There’s a lot going on at work but not that much I can talk about just now, so I’ll plug the fact that we have been working hard to bring you an outstanding program of surfactant events in Amsterdam (September 18 – 19), Mumbai (October 17 – 18) and Singapore (November 14 – 15). I should also mention that directly after Singapore, we head to KL, where arrangements have been finalized for the P2 Science triple header speaking engagement at PIPOC with Anastas, Foley and Burns on the podium (spread over 3 days you’ll be relieved to learn). I’ll also note that we have recorded a few new videos including a series with ICIS which is being released in parts over a month or so (and quite professionally produced I have to say, because they’ve managed to make me look and…

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Jul 07
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Surfactants Monthly Review – May and June 2019

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Surfactants Blog – May and June 2019 As I took a summer vacation early this year, we are doing the summer double-header blog a little earlier than usual. This blog covers key events in May and June. As a bonus, we have also published a special Independence Day Blog, which features how we might consider the day’s relevance to our business. Something really significant happened to me recently. I got some criticism, offered in a constructive way. It was also heartfelt. I will not go into detail. However, I can say that it really hit me hard and made me realize the magnitude of the time, energy and attention that many people put into reading what I write here and engaging with what we produce in our conferences. With this attention comes appreciation (for which I am truly grateful) and an expectation that a high standard will be met. Earlier this year, it was brought to my attention, respectfully, that, on one occasion, I missed the mark and fell short of that standard. Initially, my defensive hackles went up but then I realized the point was valid. What really brought this home was the heartfelt way in which the message…

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Jul 05
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Independence Day – 2019

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Surfactants Blog – Independence Day 2019 Happy Independence Day! I’ve written this before, but I love it so much, here it is again. Today is right up there with Christmas, Easter, Passover et al for me. Honestly, I woke up this morning with genuine excitement, like a kid anticipating presents. Today it was announced, to a candid world, that all men are created equal. Stop and think about that. A radical idea for the time and in fact, still radical in many parts of the world today. Now, certainly you could argue that the idea was not new in 1776 and that the Hebrew scriptures, the new testament and other texts had asserted much the same thousands of years prior. But here was a rebel bunch of colonies standing up to the world’s superpower and saying something that surely resounded through the palace of Westminster and beyond. You can imagine the great and the good, the crowned heads of Europe, spitting out their port, exclaiming “all men are created .. what!?!? – you gotta be kidding me!”. Outrage, mirth, contempt, maybe a little prescient dread formed regarding this radical concept dumped, like a rotting fish, into their well ordered drawing…

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May 06
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Surfactants Monthly Review – April 2019

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Surfactants Monthly Review – April 2019 Most Influential Can I remind you briefly here that My surfactants conference coming up in May, is covering covering bio-surfactants, digitalization, EO, EOD’s and the campus opportunity for ethoxylators. We have Estee Lauder, Exxon and every type of company in between. Along with hundreds of your colleagues, this is the authentic world surfactants experience, complete with our third exclusive awards ceremony at which we recognize the best, brightest and most accomplished. Please don’t miss out as we once again fill the Jersey City Hyatt for 3 glorious days of surfactants business. I’ll see you there. End commercial. Start of the news for April. I’m going to be upfront with you here. We have strictly the news in this edition and it is crisp and edited right down to the basics. I just don’t have time right now for the usual music, pop culture and departures into Kardashian-land. More of that next month, I’m sure. The talented and knowledgeable, Judith Taylor at ICIS notes at the beginning of the moth that US second-quarter C12-15 mid-cut fatty alcohol contracts remain under downward pressure. Finished business for the mid-cuts is largely at a drop from the first…

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Apr 03
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Surfactants Monthly March 2019

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Surfactants Monthly Review – March 2019 Authenticity Occasionally in these columns, I like to riff on a word that has appeared suddenly in the popular lexicon. These days, apparently, the highest accolade that can be bestowed upon a person or company is that they are authentic. Authenticity beats the seven cardinal virtues all the way to the metaphorical bank. To paraphrase Groucho Marx, if you can fake authenticity, you’ve got it made. Who or what, then is authentic and how did they achieve such exalted status? For more thoughts on authenticity, read, don’t skip, to the end of the blog. In the meantime, though you know what’s authentic? My surfactants conference coming up in May, covering bio-surfactants, digitalization, EO, EOD’s and the campus opportunity for ethoxylators, Estee Lauder, Exxon and every type of company in between. Along with hundreds of your colleagues, this is the authentic world surfactants experience, complete with our third exclusive awards ceremony. Please don’t miss out as we once again fill the Jersey City Hyatt for 3 glorious days of surfactants business. I’ll see you there. End commercial. Start of authentic news. The month started off with news from the biotech front. REG told ICIS that…

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Mar 05
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Surfactants Monthly Review – February 2019

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Surfactants Monthly Review – February 2019 Surprising and Unexpected Those accustomed to inventing things in the course of their work, or as a hobby, will be familiar with the concept of “surprising and unexpected”, particularly in the field of chemistry. If your invention is to be judged innovative and not obvious (the most insulting charge that can be leveled against a putative invention) then it helps if your observation of a chemical reaction or its outcome yields a result that is surprising and unexpected. Hanging around P2, (11 granted patents, 20-odd in the pipeline) I am constantly encountering surprising and unexpected things in the lab and pilot plant. Every now and then I will even contribute to the surprise myself (OK once, I got to invent something, US Pat. 10,071,944). Of course not everything surprising and unexpected is inventive, sometimes tragedies result which can shape history, ultimately for the better as the Hindenberg disaster helped hasten the advance of airplane travel. Thus aiding one, much safer, innovation (the airplane) at the expense of another (the short-lived airship). By the way, the level of interest in our upcoming World Surfactants Conference in May in NYC has turned out to be surprising…

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Feb 10
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Surfactants Monthly – January 2019

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Surfactants Monthly Review – January 2019 Can I ask you a favor before you read any further. Take a look at our surfactants value chain survey and fill it out. This year, we have some new questions and many old ones (so we get the same great time series data). Survey Link: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NDDLM2R One more favor: Think about and nominate some companies or people for our 2019 Surfactants Awards. The winners and finalists will be recognized at a really great, inspiring and incredibly well attended, reception at the Jersey City Grand Hyatt at the end of the first day of our conference on May 16th. Link: https://www.icisevents.com/ehome/worldsurfactants/awards/ By the way, readers of the blog can save, I am told, $300 off the registration fee for the conference, if you enter this code WSC19NBblog when you register here: https://www.icisevents.com/ereg/newreg.php?eventid=200178918 End of commercials. Beginning of blog. Last month saw the (real) ACI meeting in Orlando. Outstanding. Record recent attendance and a thoroughly good time. Thanks to the staff and volunteers. It’s a great way to start the year. And we humbly offer to take you through the rest of year with our events in Jersey City, Europe, India and Singapore. For highlights…

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Jan 04
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2018 – End of Year Review

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Year End Review – 2018 The Road More or Less Traveled If you are looking for the December Surfactants Review, this is not it. Follow this link. Here we have my year end musings. You won’t learn much if anything about surfactants but you will enjoy some good music and maybe learn some things you did not know about P&G and the world of advertising. Aah yes, the road less traveled. It’s definitely the way to go for the original thinker, the leader, the visionary. All great business and personal accomplishment has been found down that less traveled road, bravely trodden with fortitude and determination. True? I’m not sure about that. In fact I tend not to believe it without overwhelming evidence. I remember telling one of my protégés early on when discussing a rather unusual career aspiration that “There’s a good reason that particular road is less traveled”. As a sometime hiker and skier I can tell you there’s usually a great reason why certain routes are less traveled. There’s obviously a reason behind every road’s degree of travel and it’s probably worth thinking about those reasons first before making a commitment. It was a 1916 poem by Robert…

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Dec 24
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Surfactants Monthly Review – December 2018

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Surfactants Monthly Review – December 2018 Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to our readers. This blog is one of a two part publication. Below you will find strictly the news from December. No long diversions into cultural or musical history or reminiscences of fondly remembered times. That is all contained in our end of year piece, published separately. Below you will find just the news. So if you only read our blog for the music, you can stop right here and look out for our companion piece, “The Road More Travelled” First up in personnel notes: Oxiteno named Carlos Brasil the chief operating officer of Mexico, the Andes and the Caribbean, as noted by ICIS. A solid move by Oxiteno. I knew Carlos when he was in procurement at Oxiteno in Brazil. First class manager His promotion comes as Oxiteno has started up a new alkoxylation plant in the US. EO continues its decline in pricing as ICIS notes that US ethylene oxide contract prices for November fell by 2.7% on the back of a 6.4% decrease in the November contract settlement for feedstock ethylene.mNovember EO contracts were assessed at 52.4-61.9 cents/lb ($1,155-1,365/tonne) FOB (free on board), a decrease…

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Dec 08
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Surfactants Monthly – November 2018

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Surfactants Monthly Review – November 2018 The Road More or Less Traveled November kicked off, for me, with a week in Singapore at our 8th Asian Surfactants conference, followed by a week in KL. I learned a lot about palm plantations, downstream integration, Asian consumer trends and about Petronas (they of the towers and petrochemicals fame). More than that, I won’t say here, because, as you’re doubtless tired of hearing me say, “you gotta be there”. Your next opportunity to “be there” comes up in May in NYC for the 9th flagship / mothership surfactants conference. The course, the seminar, the awards. the conference. It’s all there. May 14th – 17th next year. As always, pretty much all of the news in this blog comes courtesy of the ICIS News team. For the full news experience, you really need to subscribe, like I do. The opinion, of course, and all the video selections are mine alone. BTW, I have a habit of inserting my own comments into the news stories. I try to highlight these in italics but not 100% consistently. So if it sounds somewhat chatty or even a little sarcastic, that’s me, not ICIS. EO (Ethylene Oxide) is…

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Nov 03
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Surfactants Monthly – October 2018

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Surfactants Monthly Review – October 2018 Mob Rule October was a great month. I spent a week in India with some of the most committed, enthusiastic and, yes, passionate people in the world. I talked about love to them but clearly I was preaching to the choir. These folks exude love for what they do. Of course, I was at the 2ndIndian Surfactants Conference, co-produced by me and ICIS. The love (I’m not kidding!) in the air in Mumbai during the event was palpable. This was a large group of people who work every day to perfect their craft because they love it. That’s why I always love being there. Now on to Singapore, for the 2018 finale. Maybe I’ll see you there? More love later in the month, shone like a rainforest-fragrant rainbow over the town of  Naugatuck (CT). P2 Science started production at our brand new green chemistry plant using elegant, patented technology, developed in partnership with Desmet Ballestra of Italy. First product off the line, also a world first, BioNonanal™. A fragrance aldehyde with 100% fresh natural, beautiful renewable carbon, at last – gorgeous! * See footnote The quarter started with stable to firm pricing sentiment around fatty alcohols, according to ICIS. While…

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