By John Richardson
SINOPEC has announced that it will halt some of its new petrochemicals investments. This could involve the postponement of up to three cracker projects with a combined ethylene capacity of 2.8m tonnes/year, according to this excellent story …
By John Richardson
CHINA has more shale gas reserves than the US, and, like the US six years ago, confronts a dangerous reliance on imported energy.
But the development of the shale industry in China is being hampered by water …
By John Richardson
ONE of Sinopec’s subsidiaries, Shanghai Petrochemical, has weighed-in to the debate over US shale gas by warning that cheap petrochemicals imports from the States could erode the whole of China’s competitiveness.
“We can’t tell how severe the …
By John Richardson
CHINA’s new leaders are under increasing pressure to do something about the dreadful pollution that blights the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
One Shanghai resident told the blog, “The air quality is so bad here …
A woman wearing a mask looks across the Pudong on 16 January this year
Source of picure: Zuma/Rex Features
By John Richardson
A DISPUTE between state-owned refiners Sinopec and PetroChina and environmental regulators serves as a good example of …
……..Significant Commercial Production “At least Ten Years Away”
By John Richardson
A US-China Shale Gas Training Programme has been launched by the independent White House agency, the US Trade & Development Agency (USTDA).
An initial $378,000 will be invested to …
“The state advances as the private sector retreats…” The table below shows the size of China state-owned enterprises versus some other corporate giants.
Source of table: The Economist. ICBC is the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
By John …
Source of table: The Economist
By John Richardson
WHEN you are an energy giant such as Shell you can afford to explore multiple avenues in an effort to profit from China’s long-term energy needs.
Thus Shell re-affirmed last week …
By John Richardson
US chemicals production remains way below its pre-crisis 2007 level but production in Asia-Pacific, after a brief blip in 2009, continues to soar, according to these charts from the American Chemistry Council.
Whereas US producers have carried …
Source: ICIS pricing Weekly Asian PE Margin Report
By John Richardson
The slide above shows how Northeast Asian naphtha-based polyethylene (PE) producers are struggling as a result of the weak China market (dark blue bars).
And it confirms …