Stocks in North American chemical companies plunged

(ICIS) -- Stocks in North American chemical companies plunged on Thursday - with several falling more than 7% - as the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 513 points. The index closed at 11,384, down 4%.

Among North American chemical companies, the declines were widespread and steep. Companies losing 7% or more include catalyst producer Albemarle, Cabot, Calumet, Celanese, CF Industries, Cytec Industries, Dow Chemical, WR Grace, Kronos, LyondellBasell, Methanex, Mosaic, Quaker Chemical, Rockwood, Spartech, A Schulman, Solutia, Sunoco, TPC Group, Valero and Westlake Chemical. The list represents nearly every chemical sector.

Stock even fell for Lubrizol and Arch Chemicals, both of which are pending acquisition targets.
The chemical companies hit the hardest had released their quarterly earnings in the past few days.
Polyurethanes and titanium dioxide (TiO2) producer Huntsman fell by nearly 31% - the largest drop among the companies followed by ICIS.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Shares of petrochemical companies in Asia tumbled on Friday in line with sharp falls across regional bourses on concerns over a possible demand slump, with fears of a double-dip recession hounding the global markets. The Asian markets took the cue from the 4.31% plunge in US equities overnight, which was accompanied by a slump in US crude prices.

Recent data from the US and the debt crisis in the eurozone do not inspire confidence about the strength of the recovery of the global economy from the 2009 recession. In the US, consumer spending fell for the first time in nearly two years, logging in a 0.2% decline, while its manufacturing sector grew at its lowest rate in two years in July.

There are concerns that the troubles in the western economies may drag down Asian economies, which managed to recover faster from the global recession, but are currently dealing with high inflation.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- The Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) announced that it has spent over SR150 mln to construct its corporate Research and Product & Application Center - at the Dhahran Techno Valley (DTV) of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM).

Sipchem has previously signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Petroleum and Minerals and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals for the establishment of the center on a 15000 square meters area at DTV. Based on this memorandum Sipchem shall construct, manage and operate this center.

Sipchem has already started the construction of the center at the site. The center has been designed on the most modern building designs that contain state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment with the objective of developing the usage of polymer products and the downstream industries in the Kingdom which currently include more than 860 plants. The company targets to start operation of the center in the middle of 2012.

MRC

(Reuters) -- Asia's naphtha price stayed at a two-week low on Thursday, while cracks edged higher and South Korean spot prices flipped to premiums for the first time in about two months, supported by recovering ethylene and plastics prices.

LG Chem bought two open-spec cargoes totalling around 50 KT for second-half September arrival at Daesan and Yosu.

Prices were estimated to be in the range of 50 cents to USD 1 a tonne premium to Japan spot quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis.

This is the first time spot prices were in premiums since May 26. The prolonged shutdown of Formosa's 700 KTa No. 1 cracker and an upcoming maintenance at its 1.2 million tpy No. 3 cracker are creating a tighter ethylene market.

MRC

(Gevo) -- Gevo, a leading renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company, announced it plans to work with South Hampton Resources, a subsidiary of Arabian American Development Co, to build a hydrocarbon processing demonstration plant at their facility just outside of Houston in Silsbee, Texas. This demonstration plant is expected to process up to 10.000 gallons of Gevo's isobutanol per month into a variety of renewable hydrocarbon materials including jet fuel for engine testing, isooctane for gasoline, isooctene and paraxylene for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and will supply other potential customers with material for product qualification and evaluation. The demonstration plant is slated for completion before the end of 2011. The contract between the companies is for two years with one-year extensions thereafter.

MRC