Natural rubber is up Rs 25 in Bangkok and climbing in Kottayam : West Asia is now squeezing… – Global News Digest, 1 Apr 2026

Geopolitics & supply chain

860% of India's crude comes through the Strait of Hormuz : And right now it's choking

From the Strait of Hormuz to India's condom factories : The petrochemical link nobody saw coming

India's API makers are days away from running out of solvents : And the government hasn't moved yet

Pricing & markets

Dow just doubled its polyethylene hike to 30 cents a pound : And LyondellBasell is right behind it

Natural rubber is up Rs 25 in Bangkok and climbing in Kottayam : West Asia is now squeezing India's tyre chain too

Tokyo rubber futures dip for the first time in weeks : But China's tapping season could flip the story again

Accidents & safety

Three dead, 68 injured at Sibur's Nizhnekamsk complex : A gas explosion that could cut 6% of Russia's synthetic rubber output

Pitch oil engulfed an entire industrial zone for four hours : And the company never called the fire department

Industry deals & M&A

ADNOC and OMV just created the world's largest pure-play polyolefins company : And it's headquartered in Vienna

SNF wins a Rs 547 crore ONGC deal to flood Bechraji's ageing wells with polymer : India's biggest EOR bet yet

Deepak Builders wins the Panipat Refinery township bid : A Rs 4.74 bn order that pushes its book to Rs 320 bn

Packaging & sustainability

Formosa has declared force majeure on ethylene and propylene : And Costco Taiwan is now rationing plastic bags

A £20 million recycling plant in Corby could end the UK's embarrassing plastic waste export habit

Hong Kong's biggest cargo handler just closed the loop on plastic : Turning its own waste into the sheets that replace it

Amcor built Luxéol a jar that's over 50% recycled and looks like it isn't : That's the brief the beauty industry has been waiting for

AkzoNobel's coatings will protect three new Baltic ferries : 280,000 litres of paint and a decade-long shipyard relationship

PulPac's fiber caps look so much like plastic that customers don't believe they aren't : That's the point

The packaging industry's biggest lie was that renewable materials meant a performance trade-off : Two companies are proving it wrong

Regulation & policy

India just mandated 60% recycled content in plastic packaging by 2028-29 : Brand owners have four years to comply

Kerala's rubber farmers need Rs 300 a kg to survive : Politicians are arguing about Rs 250 while the next generation books flights out

Pharmaceuticals

Granules India's Shameerpet plant clears the US FDA with no action required : A clean chit that opens multi-site manufacturing

Corporate moves

Tinna Rubber quietly dissolved its Amsterdam subsidiary : It never traded a single rupee, and now it's gone

Goodyear pulls its ASEAN HR head back from Singapore to lead South Asia : A region that just got more strategic

Exhibitions & events

Covestro is bringing colour-changing car panels, antimicrobial coatings, and recyclable cushioning to Frankfurt : All under one booth