Asian Chemical Connections

Formosa Confirms US Cracker Plans

By Malini Hariharan One more US cracker and propane dehydrogenation (PDH) project has been confirmed. After months of speculation Formosa Plastics has announced that plans to build a 800,000 tonnes/year ethane cracker, a 600,000 tonnes/year PDH plant and a 300,000...

Posted by John on February 28, 2012 4:37 AM

Restocking lifts polyolefins prices

By Malini Hariharan Polyolefins prices in the key China markets inched up last week thanks to an uptick in buying activity. Prices of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) blow moulding and film grades moved up $20/tonne while linear-low density PE prices were...

Posted by John on November 8, 2011 12:47 AM

Latin America focused on new investments

By Malini Hariharan The blog has been scanning ICIS news reports from the 31th Latin American Petrochemical Association (APLA) conference in Buenos Aires to gauge the mood at the event. Participants appear to be sanguine despite the global economic...

Posted by John on November 7, 2011 12:49 AM

Operating rate cuts the only option

By Malini Hariharan News of operating rate cuts is pouring in. Crackers in Japan, Taiwan and parts of southeast Asia have been running at reduced rates of 80-90% in October. But now there is also talk of rate cuts at...

Posted by John on November 3, 2011 12:27 AM

PE Market Weakness Spreads To US

By Malini Hariharan After Europe, the US polyethylene (PE) market has started showing increasing signs of weakness. Spot offers have rapidly fallen putting downward pressure on June contracts that are currently under negotiation. Producers may have no choice but to...

Posted by John on June 28, 2011 12:27 AM

Petro Rabigh phase 2 and Aramco's ambition

By Malini Hariharan Petro Rabigh, the Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical joint venture, has moved to the next round of its ambitious phase 2 expansion which includes a new aromatics facility and a number of value-added derivatives. Construction tenders for...

Posted by John on June 15, 2011 12:19 AM

Weak demand haunts China PE markets

By John Richardson IS China's polyethylene (PE) market going through a temporary lull or are we seeing a sea change in conditions that could spell problems for the rest of this year? This was the question, to paraphrase Hamlet, facing...

Posted by John on February 21, 2011 2:16 AM

Polyolefin numbers look good

By Malini Hariharan Pic source: www.brandft.co.uk The blog is in undertaking the difficult task of collecting demand numbers for polyolefins across major Asian markets. Preliminary estimates show that demand growth has been quite healthy in the two major markets -...

Posted by John on January 31, 2011 11:53 PM

Dalian offers hope ...but naphtha continues to climb

By Malini Hariharan The good news for polyolefin producers is that prices in China are inching up supported by an upward movement in the key linear low-density polyethylene (lldPE) futures contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE). The arbitrage window...

Posted by John on January 6, 2011 11:59 PM

Map Ta Phut issue drags on

By Malini Hariharan The Thai government is doing all it can to quickly resolve the Map Ta Phut crisis but full operations at PTT Chem's new cracker is likely only in early 2011. Feedstock ethane for the 1m tonnes/year cracker...

Posted by John on August 17, 2010 1:29 AM

Unravelling China's polyolefin numbers

By Malini Hariharan There is some good and not so good news from China. Import and production numbers for January to April are now available and they tell an interesting story. The good news is that Chinese demand, measured in...

Posted by John on May 27, 2010 11:39 AM

Price slide intensifies

By Malini Hariharan The weakness in Asian markets is spreading with steep drops also being reported in olefin prices. Ethylene prices dropped by $160-170/tonnes last week while propylene declined $90-110/tonne, writes my colleague Soo Hwee, ICIS pricing editor for olefins....

Posted by John on May 24, 2010 11:42 AM

Reliance eyes 2014 start for Jamnagar cracker

By Malini Hariharan Reliance Industries is moving ahead with its Jamnagar cracker project and is looking at completing it in 2014, reports ICIS news. Preliminary activity on the project, which was put on hold after the 2008 economic crisis, has...

Posted by John on April 20, 2010 2:36 PM

Map Ta Phut pressure mounts

By Malini Hariharan PTT Chem is likely to miss its revenue growth target of 20% this year because of the Map Ta Phut crisis. The company had set a 2010 revenue target of about Baht100bn (US$3bn), up from Baht80bn in...

Posted by John on February 16, 2010 10:10 AM

India growth story - Part 3

By Malini Hariharan Some numbers today on Indian polyolefin and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) demand growth during April-December 2009. The strong growth trend noticed in the early part of last year continued and belied earlier expectations of a slowdown because of...

Posted by John on February 12, 2010 10:11 AM

Polymers start the year on a robust note, but how long will it last?

By Malini Hariharan and John Richardson Expect the unexpected and you probably stand a good chance of making money in the polymer market. Defying expectations of a slowdown in demand ahead of the Chinese new year in February markets have...

Posted by John on January 6, 2010 11:46 AM

Qatar says there will be one more cracker

By Malini Hariharan Qatar has reconfirmed its commitment to build more petrochemical plants including a new worldscale cracker. At a ceremony to mark the start of construction of Qapco's new ldPE project, the deputy premier and minister of energy and...

Posted by John on December 17, 2009 10:47 AM