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Asian Chemical Connections

China’s Pollution/Economic Campaign To Reshape Petchems

By John Richardson I BELIEVE that China’s environmental crackdown will continue to disrupt petrochemicals and polymers markets for the next few years. This is not a temporary phenomenon that will largely go away with the end of the September 2017-March 2018 campaign to minimise air pollution in 28 northern cities. Further waves of environmental inspections […]

China Jobs Versus The Cost Curve

By John Richardson ACHIEVING approval for any new petrochemicals projects in China is going to be a lot harder in the future, is a a growing view across the chemicals industry. A senior executive with a US-based polyolefins producer, for example, told the blog recently:  “It looks as if Chinese chemicals companies are finding it […]

China’s “Overwhelming” Overcapacity

By John Richardson A HOPE being expressed by chemicals and polymer traders and producers the blog has spoken to this week is that the surge in lending in China during the first quarter will result in stronger GDP growth later this year. Total new financing, which includes both official bank loans and lending via the […]

Reassessing China Petchem Projects

By John Richardson Methanol-to-olefins (MTO) projects in China are subject to more disagreement over viability than any other group of petrochemicals investments, said HSBC in a report released last month. HSBC, for example, takes a pretty negative view of the economics of MTO projects. This applies both to planned investments based on locally-sourced coal – […]

India Chems Look For Govt Support

By Malini Hariharan The Indian government is being asked to give a fresh boost to the chemicals industry in the 12th Five Year Plan beginning from 1 April. A working group for the chemicals industry has detailed key measures that the government must take to ensure growth of 12% during the plan period (2012-2017). Top […]

SABIC And Sinopec’s Trinidad Partnership

By Malini Hariharan More news has emerged on the Trinidad methanol and methanol-to-olefins (MTO) project covered by the blog last week. Chinese major Sinopec is likely to be SABIC’s partner for the $5.3bn project. The two companies are in negotiations with the Trinidad government, said SABIC. With Sinopec as a partner, SABIC would gain access […]

Methanol moves

By Malini Hariharan Recent moves by methanol majors to boost their capacities have caught the blog’s attention. Sabic’s chief financial officer Mutlaq al-Morished disclosed at a press conference yesterday in Dubai that the company is in talks for a methanol project in Trinidad and Tobago. Morished declined to provide details as the talks were being […]

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