By Malini Hariharan Tension is building up in the Indian polyolefin market with buying activity slowing down in recent weeks. “The market is really dull; trading activity is very flat and end-users are taking minimum quantities. We are worried that the situation will worsen if we offer more discounts,” says a concerned producer. The slow […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Petronas set to unveil new refinery and petchem venture
By Malini Hariharan Malaysia’s Petronas is expected to soon announce plans for a new refinery and petrochemical complex Pengerang, Johor, a project that the blog had discussed a few months back. A report in the Malaysian newspaper Star says the project, named Rapid or Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development, would involve an investment of close […]
The False Promise Of US Petrochemicals?
By John Richardson THE remarkable shift in the competitive landscape of petrochemicals resulting from shale gas was highlighted yesterday in an excellent post by our fellow blogger, Paul Hodges. Drawing on data from the NPRA, with analysis from the ICIS data and analytics team and Bob Townsend of International e-Chem, Paul shows the steep rise in ethane […]
Old Growth Model Needs To Be Challenged
By John Richardson Calling all chemicals investors: If you hear any presentation from any company out there that talks about an uninterrupted boom in growth in China, please, please start asking some searching questions. Please….. We have so far yet to come across any evidence of such questions after scouring the web. Instead, we have […]
Broad Commodities Retreat Hurts Chemicals
By John Richardson WE hate to say we told you so but the 15 per cent fall in oil prices last week – the steepest one-week decline in two-and-a-half years – was evidence of growing concern over the health of the global economy. And as we predicted on 12 April, last week saw a broad sell-off […]
SBR under pressure on China slowdown
By Malini Hariharan Styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) prices, which have nearly doubled over the last year, may be heading for a much needed correction. The strength in feedstock butadiene markets and strong demand from the automotive sector have so far helped support the high numbers. But a key concern is that China’s tightened monetary policy […]
Korea escapes from China slowdown
By Malini Hariharan The blog has been scanning equity analyst reports of South Korean companies and has noticed that earnings expectations for the year are being revised upwards despite market uncertainties. Companies such as S-Oil are expected to benefit from a recovery in refining and paraxylene (PX) margins. Woori Investment & Securities has raised its […]
LyondellBasell Plans US Capacity Additions
Jim Gallogly Source of picture: ICIS By John Richardson LYONDELLBASELL has joined the list of US producers that have disclosed ethylene expansion plans as a result of low-cost ethane and the belief that we are heading towards an up-cycle. Jim Gallogly, LyondellBasell’s CEO, said during an earnings call on Monday that debottleneckings are […]
Cotton Support For Fibre Intermediates Declines
By John Richardson RISING cotton prices might well have been the single-biggest factor on the strength in the synthetic textiles chain for the last year. Other major factors have obviously been the surge in crude and supply constraints in both paraxylene (PX) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) – but certainly not in mono-ethylene glycol (MEG)! […]
Dow’s Liveris On The Mark On China?
By John Richardson Dow Chemical’s CEO, Andrew Liveris, was reassuringly upbeat about the state of demand in China last week when he described it as “quite robust” during an analysts’ call on the release of the company’s Q1 results And very significantly, given that we can trust that his comments were based on plenty of […]
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