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Asian Chemical Connections

Europe’s Dinosaur Destiny

By John Richardson DINOSAURS became extinct, scientists think, because of an event beyond their control – either an asteroid colliding with the earth, volcanic activity, an ice age, disease or gradual climate change. With all due respect to the former inhabitants of our planet, they were not the brightest of species. Thus, even if they […]

Grangemouth Viewed Through A Wider Lens

By John Richardson THROUGH the narrow lens of stand-alone cost competitiveness, the threatened refinery and petrochemicals complex in Grangemouth, Scotland the UK, (see picture) can be viewed as having a very questionable long-term future. For example, Britain’s refineries are viewed as small, old and lacking in sophistication. And it can be argued that they are […]

Players In Europe And Asia Are Serious About Cheap US Ethane

A fascinating guest blog post by my colleague, Nigel Davis (see below) explores how excess US ethane supply could help raise the competitiveness of European and US crackers. Provided, of course, that there is sufficient demand. By Nigel Davis IT is becoming clear that European companies aside from INEOS are looking seriously at importing ethane […]

Chem Q3 Results Show Flat Growth

By John Richardson CHEMICAL company third quarter financial results point to what has been apparent at ground level for some time now – a struggle to achieve volume growth over 2010. My colleague Nigel Davis, who edits in the Insight section of ICIS news, wrote in this article last week: “In the fourth quarter of 2011, […]

Economic concerns dampen EPCA meeting

By Malini Hariharan On a day when Asian stock markets tumbled on fresh worries about Europe’s debt problems and a wider economic slowdown, it was not surprising to read about the downbeat mood at this year’s European Petrochemical Association’s (EPCA) meeting in Berlin. Reports by the blog’s colleagues on ICIS news indicate that economic concerns […]

Shale gas spurs optimism but questions remain

By Malini Hariharan The mood at this year’s International Petrochemical Conference, hosted by the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association (NPRA) in San Antonio,US, is quite bullish and is evident in the reports being filed by the blog’s colleagues on ICIS news. An improvement in profitability and increased availability of ethane has prompted companies such as […]

European Petchems & Future Competitiveness

By John Richardson Dear Reader We hope and pray that the nuclear crisis in Japan will be resolved and that the rebuilding process following the earthquake and tsunami can be begin. My colleagues at ICIS news are doing a comprehensive job in covering the disaster in terms of how it is affecting the petrochemicals industry […]

Edgy And Nervous CEOs In Deep Contemplation

Davos 2011  Source of picture: eacci.net     By John Richardson THE edginess and nervousness of Asian polyolefin markets we talked about last week is likely to be part of the mindset of any chemicals company CEO right now. As my colleague Nigel Davis wrote about last week, the industry’s financial results for 2010 are […]

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