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…

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…

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…

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…