By Malini Hariharan Despite doubts about availability of gas, its cost and viability of using naphtha or other feedstocks, companies from the Middle East are continuing to plan new petrochemical projects. The latest is Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Co (PIC) which is looking to invest $5bn in a new 1.4m tonnes/year mixed-feed cracker and derivatives complex. […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Operating problems strike Asian polyolefins
By Malini Hariharan Just when polyolefin markets have started recovering operating issues are cropping up at plants in Asia. ExxonMobil was forced to shut its 600,000 tonnes/year polyethylene (PE) plant in Singapore on Tuesday for two weeks due to undisclosed problems. The PE plant had faced problems in early July when it was shut down […]
Asia awash with aromatics
By Malini Hariharan Excess availability of product continues to trouble Asian aromatics markets. Commissioning of new plants and reluctance to cut operating rates has resulted in a steady build up of stocks over the last few months. Take the case of paraxylene (PX). The spread between naphtha and PX prices has been running below $250-300/tonne, […]
Taiwan’s tough talk
By Malini Hariharan Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s problems are mounting after two accidents in less than a month at its refinery and petrochemical site in Mailiao, Taiwan. Wu Den-yih, the country’s premier was at the site last week and ordered an investigation report to be submitted on 6 August. And in a bid to reassure residents […]
China PE Price Rebound Driven By Futures Market
By John Richardson CHINA’S domestic linear-low density polyethylene (LLDPE) prices have rebounded by as much as Yuan 1,000/tonne ($147.5./tonne) or 8% over the last two weeks, according to this ICIS news article from my colleague Rainy Ma. As these graphs show (click below) there is now a significant gap between more expensive domestic material and […]
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