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Asian Chemical Connections

The slow trek downstream

By Malini Hariharan Nearly two years after SABIC and ExxonMobil signed an agreement for a multi-billion dollar 50:50 joint-venture elastomers complex iin Saudi Arabia, the two majors have yet to take a final decision on the project. At last year’s GPCA forum in December, Mohamed Al-Mady, SABIC’s CEO, had indicated that the two companies were waiting […]

No Going Back, But Don’t Expect Smooth Ride

Cloth nappies?….you have to be kidding       Source of picture: babygavin.com   By John Richardson IT IS the biggest transformation that the global economy has probably ever undergone, resulting in numerous opportunities and challenges for the chemicals industry as emerging markets continue to boom. The obvious opportunity is for those who can meet […]

Petchem markets on a bull run

By Malini Hariharan The Chinese are back from their holidays and they are buying. This coupled with supply constraints and firm crude prices is fuelling a surge in petrochemical prices. Paraxylene (PX) prices hit a 2-year high this week on speculative activity and production problems at a couple of Chinese plants, reports ICIS news. Spot […]

US Polyethylene Competitiveness To Surge in 2012

George Mitchell of Devon Energy – The “Father of Shale Gas” By John Richardson US polyethylene (PE) input costs will be 50% less than those in Europe and Asia beyond 2012, says a new report by Morgan Stanley. The extraordinary gap in competitiveness is the result of the shale gas revolution that has sharply reduced […]

China Economic Hype And Crude Oil

Let’s catch the bus from now on….  Source of picture: hybridcars.com   By John Richardson THE blog has long been worried about the difficulty, probably the impossibility, of accurately measuring real Chinese growth. And it gets harder as the country now has some 130,000 polyolefin traders and distributors, according to an estimate we heard last […]

China MTO/MTP – one more project starts

By Malini Hariharan Shenhua Ningxia has finally produced onspec propylene at its new 470,000 tonnes/year methanol-to-propylene (MTP) plant after starting trial operations last month. This marks the successful start of China’s first MTP project, which is also the world’s largest. There is one more due by the end of the year -Datang Power’s 450,000 tonnes/year […]

Getting Education Right Is Crucial

The brightest and the best, but will there be enough of them? Source of picture: schoolsinnewdelhi.com     By John Richardson EDUCATION, education and education are three of the biggest challenges facing developing countries over the next 10-20 years. This will determine overall growth of economies. Without the right skill sets the rapid rates of […]

Indian PP Growth On The Right Track

Here’s the stereotype…. Source of picture: www.watblog.com   By John Richardson WE talked last week about how emerging markets continue to astound when it comes to demand, meaning that we might have to take a long and hard look at the parameters used to measure growth. Further support for this argument came from a visit […]

The politics of dumping

By Malini Hariharan It was supposed to be a mere formality. More than a month back India’s commerce ministry formally recommended final anti-dumping duties on polypropylene (PP) imports from Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Oman. For duties to be implemented the commerce ministry’s recommendation has to be approved by the finance ministry. But this approval has […]

India contributes to Asian growth story

By Malini Hariharan Yes, the Indian economy is growing and propping up demand for all polymers. The blog had highlighted a few weeks back that polypropylene (PP) demand expanded by 13% during the April-July period and the expectations are that this rate will be maintained for the full year ending 31 March 2011. Raffia, the […]

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