By John Richardson THE soaring confidence of the US petrochemicals industry over abundant ethane feedstock from shale gas could end up being colossally misplaced, as we have discussed before on the blog. America is the most NIMBY (not in my backyard) of all societies and so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody that […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Broad Commodities Sell-off Beckons
By John Richardson THE blog remains extremely worried that there is about to be a major sell-off of commodities in general, including petrochemicals, as conditions right now feel very similar to those in 2008. Whether we will face a systemic shock to the system, a black swan, on the scale of Lehman Bros is of […]
China market problems persist
By John Richardson WHILE ethylene prices rose to a 14-month high last week on very expensive oil and the Shell Chemicals outage in Singapore, the ICIS pricing C2 margin report calculated a staggering $134/tonne fall in Northeast Asian margins. Rising naphtha is clearly not being passed on down the chain. Meanwhile, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) margins […]
India PVC imports set to grow
By Malini Hariharan The outlook for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in India is bright was the conclusion at the end of last week’s Vinyls-India 2011 conference in Mumbai. Plenty of indicators were put up to justify this conclusion. India’s per-capita consumption of PVC is only 1.7kg as against 13.4 kg in the US, 9.2kg in China, […]
Chinese PVC demand set to reach 13m
By Malini Hariharan The blog was at the Vinyls India – 2011 conference in Mumbai which has attracted over 400 delegates interested in hearing about the Indian market. The country has emerged as a major importer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with nearly 650,000 tonnes of suspension grade imported in 2009-10. But no PVC conference can […]
Huntsman to scale up India capacities
By Malini Hariharan US chemical producer Huntsman plans to rapidly expand capacities and sales in India, a country that has caught the attention of global majors. The blog caught up with the company’s President and CEO Peter Huntsman in Mumbai yesterday. “In every one of our businesses, except titanium dioxide, we will be spending money […]
One more US expansion
By Malini Hariharan The shale gas based ethane rush in the US continues with Westlake Chemical the latest to announce big expansions at its two crackers in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Each of Westlake’s two light feedstock crackers will be expanded to provide ethylene for existing internal derivatives units and the merchant market, said the producer. […]
Chemicals And The Removal Of The Punch Bowl
By John Richardson LUNCH with a chemicals analyst yesterday, during the blog’s latest trip to Singapore, gave an intriguing glimpse into the world of those who invest in the chemicals industry. “The Morgan Stanely “Supercycle” report (which the blog wrote about late last year) seems to be on every fund managers desks,” he said. “These […]
Growing in confidence
By Malini Hariharan After sorting out their merger, PTT Chem and PTT Aromatics and Refining (PTTAR) are looking at a major new investment to take care of their future. In an interview with the blog’s colleague Tahir Ikram, PTT Chem’s president and CEO disclosed that the two companies are jointly studying a cracker project. “We […]
Growing Uncertainties Cloud Chemicals Outlook
By John Richardson THE global growth outlook grows ever murkier as a result of credit tightening in China (or is the problem instead continued strong growth in lending?), inflation problems throughout Asia, possible monetary tightening in the West, the direction of oil prices and the Japanese tsunami-earthquake. We feel that this is making the rest […]
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