Search Results for: China

BY MARK ROWE

FOR the nuclear power plant industry, global economic crises can make for uncertain times. On the one hand, the long lead-in times associated with construction, along with copper-bottomed signed state contracts, should mean many projects continue as usual.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DEMAND from China for waste packaging from the European Union (EU) has shrunk dramatically, which will inevitably impede product manufacturers from ensuring enough of their materials end up in recycling, as required by EU law. Plastics packaging has been especially hard hit, with Hong Kong dealers reporting slides from US$540 per tonne to US$380 per tonne from August to October.…

BY JAMES BURNS, PHILIPPA JONES, KARRYN MILLER and FRANCES WANG

IF anything would drive the cosmetics sector away from mineral oils into the arms of bio-based oils and fats suppliers, it is surely the high crude oil prices that punished buyers before they began to fall steeply in the summer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

STIFF protective duties have been reimposed on imports into the European Union (EU) of China and India-made sulphanilic acid, a raw material making acid dyes, reactive dyes, ramazol dyes, metal complex dyes, direct dyes and optical brighteners. The EU Council of Ministers had to decide whether to lift or reimpose anti-dumping duties on Chinese and Indian sulphanilic acid and also countervailing duties on Indian exports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CONFERENCE in Brussels has been staged by the European Union (EU) and China, where both sides agreed to cooperate in the development of emerging transport technologies, notably biofuels and hydrogen fuel cells. The event was co-organised by the Chinese ministry of sciences and technology and the European Commission’s directorate general for transport and energy.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE PSYCHOLOGY of colour has fascinated philosophers and scientists down the ages, so it is perhaps unsurprising that the world’s paint companies devote much of their time to working out why consumers prefer certain colours for certain everyday items – and why these tastes vary so much across the world.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD must generate half its electricity supplies from renewable energy sources by 2050 to avoid the most serious climate change, claims a new International Energy Agency report. It praises renewable programmes in Spain, Germany, Denmark and Portugal (wind-power) and China (solar heating).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DESPITE recent collapses in waste plastic market supplies, the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has authorised increases in waste plastics that must be collected and prepared for recycling across the EU. A new waste management framework directive has been approved boosting minimum recycling rates for plastics and other household wastes, saying that by 2020, the EU’s 27 member states must recycle half (by weight) of this refuse.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

INTRODUCTION

About 10 years ago the American distiller JB Wagoner decided to market a fiery liquor made from the cactus-like agave plants growing in the hills on his estate at Temecula in California. He called it "temequila." It soon became known as "the American tequila," proving indistinguishable in taste, texture and effect from the well-known Mexican drink.…

BY SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH

PAKISTAN’s automobile industry, contributing 2.8 % to the country’s GDP by financial year (FY) 2006-7, has grown impressively this decade. But the sector’s growth may turn negative this year because of high inflation, especially rising steel prices, political uncertainty and overall economic recession in Pakistan and elsewhere.…