Just an anomaly? Source: American Chemistry Council By John Richardson FEEDSTOCK advantage is, of course, crucially important, but so is demand. And yet the only subject that most people wanted to talk about in any depth at last...
By John Richardson ASIAN higher cost polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producers are facing the twin squeeze of increased electricity costs and very competitive exports from the US, according to an industry source the blog met with in Taipei, ahead of tomorrow...
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...
Source: ICIS Chemical Business By John Richardson SEVEN grassroots crackers are now being planned in the US, along with numerous ethylene derivatives facilities (see the above table). The mood at last month's the 38th American Fuel & Petrochemical...
By John Richardson Amidst all the continued excitement about abundant supplies of ethane in the US, some sceptics are still warning that all may not as it seems during petrochemicals company investor presentations. "The US does not have 100 years...
By John Richardson SAUDI ARABIA'S National Petrochemical Industrial Co (NATPET) has gone public over an issue that has worried Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) petrochemical producers for several years now: The erosion of the GCC's competitive advantage over the US. "There...
By John Richardson Our argument ument that demographics drive demand is gaining greater traction. Demographic challenges apply both to developed markets, where populations are rapidly ageing, and to emerging markets such as China, which confronts ithe consequences of...
By John Richardson ALL of yesterday's excitement about the US overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia by 2017 to become the world's biggest oil producer - and exceeding Russia to become the world's biggest gas producer by 2015 - needs to...
By John Richardson A management consultancy has gone on the record to warn about what the blog has been warning about for months: That the US petrochemicals industry is in danger of pushing itself into oversupply. KPMG, in...
By John Richardson SIGNIFICANT volumes of US polyethylene (PE) are heading to China as the States attempts to compensate for weaker domestic sales, understands the blog. Despite the fall in US prices, margins remain strong, creating arbitrage opportunities....
By John Richardson FEEDSTOCK advantages in the US and the continued economic rise of Asia were some of the themes of last week's Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Steam crackers are being planned in abundance in...
By John Richardson FIVE years ago everybody had written-off the US petrochemicals industry, but now the industry is incredibly gung-ho, thanks to shale gas - even if the issue of demand is somewhat more problematic. In five years time,...
By John Richardson THE higher that oil prices go the more the US petrochemical industry's margins have expanded. Petrochemical prices are oil-driven and, therefore, have to go higher as crude becomes more expensive, whereas the cost of shale gas-based ethane...
By John Richardson THE hard numbers, in the chart above, support anecdotal evidence we have been picking up for over a month of increased Asian polyethylene (PE) exports to Brazil and other Latin American countries. It also confirms...
By John Richardson THERE are four major reasons why the first three quarters of 2011 have been excellent for chemicals companies, which are: 1.) Strong co-product credits have supported what have been weak commodity-grade polyolefin markets since March of this...
George Mitchell of Devon Energy - The "Father of Shale Gas" By John Richardson US polyethylene (PE) input costs will be 50% less than those in Europe and Asia beyond 2012, says a new report by Morgan Stanley. The extraordinary...
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries tagged 'US shale gas'. [What is this?]