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• Tainted food hits polymer sales

  As if the problems confronting China's polyolefin markets were not enough, sales have apparently been further hit by the tainted food scares which began with baby's milk. A wide range of products are now affected with Cadbury becoming the latest... Posted Sep 29 2008, 02:15 PM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: China, Environment, Middle East, Polyolefins, Projects, Australia, financial meltdown, China civil unrest, Tainted food, Cadbury

• A drowning man will clutch onto anything

  A drowning man will grab hold of any floating debris - even a plastic bag made from standard-grade Chinese polyethylene (PE). Hence, last Friday a statement by Wang Tianpu led to a few days of excited speculation about the cancellation of several Chinese... Posted Sep 12 2008, 10:11 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: Economics, China, Environment, Indonesia, India, Middle East, Olefins, Polyolefins, Projects, Business, Oil & Gas, Markets, Philippines, Naphtha & other feedstocks, sustainability, Deutsche Bank, Company Strategy, Innnovation, Peak Oil, coal gasification, Sumitomo Chemical, gas pricing, Saudi Aramco, coal-o-chemicals, PetroRabigh

• Yes, I know - I was wrong!

  Anybody who has had the misfortune to have to listen to me ranting on about Peak Oil of late might have heard - if they managed to stay awake long enough - that I predicted crude could not fall below $100 a barrel because of the fundamentals. I must admit... Posted Sep 10 2008, 04:12 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: Economics, China, Environment, Olefins, Projects, Oil & Gas, Naphtha & other feedstocks, sustainability, Peak Oil, being Scottish, falling crude, Brent crude, Asian shares collapse

• Japan' corporate hero

  Back in the 1980s, before Japan's "Lost Decade" of stagnant growth, management gurus lined up to praise the country's collective spirit as the basis of a sustainable economic miracle. Since then, of course, the West has been consistently... Posted Aug 12 2008, 12:12 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: Economics, Japan, Middle East, Olefins, Polyolefins, Projects, Business, Managing people, Knowledge management, Company Strategy, losing face, manga, Lost Decade, Japanese conformism

• Shell plans for the long-term

  See below for an extended interview with Shell Chemicals vice president, Ben van Beurden, who talks of the search for new feedstock sources. He raises the possiblity of using syngas from the Pearl GTL project in Qatar to make methanol and then olefins... Posted Jun 03 2008, 10:38 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: China, technology, Middle East, Olefins, Projects, Oil & Gas, Methanol & Derivatives, Naphtha & other feedstocks, Singapore, methanol-to-olefins, Shell, Gas-to-liquids

• Aromatics become ever-more challenging

  If the refining industry is the tail that certainly does not wag the dog of oil exploration, where does that leave aromatics? Quite probably, the flea on the coat of the dog. And it gets ever-more complicated and the risks keep multiplying for the industry... Posted May 07 2008, 11:06 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: ethanol, Biodiesel, aromatics, Projects, aromatics muddle, food versus fuel

• The search for more basic petrochemicals

  Very interesting speech from Alan Kirkley, Vice President of Strategy and Portfolio for Shell Chemicals, which first of all goes over the predictable ground of where we are in the cycle and the threat from the Middle East. However, he then makes the valid... Posted Apr 10 2008, 08:26 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: Economics, China, technology, Middle East, Olefins, Polyolefins, Projects, Oil & Gas, Markets, Naphtha & other feedstocks, catalytic cracking, hydrocracking, LNG

• History will surely repeat itself

  The mood at the recent NPRA International Petrochemical Conference in San Antonio, Texas, was mixed, despite all the economic gloom. Some producers said they were still making money - especially those selling into manufacturing sectors benefiting from... Posted Apr 08 2008, 08:05 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: Economics, China, technology, aromatics, Japan, oil prices, Polyolefins, Projects, Business, Oil & Gas, Markets, US recession, gasoline, US housing

• Is the last margin grab over?

  Shortly after I wrote this article (see below) on the doom and gloom surrounding China polyolefins markets, hey presto, prices rallied and I was wondering whether I needed to be wiping egg off my face. But shortly after the slight rally occurred, a polyolefins... Posted Mar 24 2008, 05:05 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: Economics, China, Olefins, Polyolefins, Projects, Oil & Gas, China slowdown, Markets, US recession, China pollution

• If I had a dollar for every time.........

  .......I had heard a company saying it was moving up the value chain (or rather a Euro or a British pound these days), I wouldn't be writing this blog entry while smelling the wonderful aroma of pork sausages being cooked for my tea. Brown sauce and... Posted Feb 19 2008, 01:01 PM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: China, technology, aromatics, Dow Chemical, Olefins, Polyolefins, brown sauce and mash, Pork sausages, performance products, Styrenics, Projects, Business

• Life gets more complicated for methanol

  In the good or maybe the bad old days depending on your standpoint, methanol was a fairly straightforward product. You had chemicals demand and that was more or less it. But as the extended analysis below explains, chemical producers who use methanol... Posted Jan 31 2008, 05:01 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: China, Environment, technology, Projects, Oil & Gas, coal-to-chemicals, Methanol & Derivatives, coal, coal-to-liquids

• Here we go again - 1997 is back.....

  I sincerely hope not, but all the signs are there because of: *A financial crisis which nobody again saw coming, this time with global implications *What could prove to be too much spending on new equipment and capacity. This time high equity prices have... Posted Jan 22 2008, 05:41 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: Economics, China, Indonesia, Japan, Middle East, Olefins, Polyolefins, Styrenics, Projects, Business, Oil & Gas, Markets, I wish I was more cash-rich, Malaysia, Philippines, Fibre Intermediates, Naphtha & other feedstocks, Thailand, New economic crisis, Singapore

• China coal to benzene threatens

  With naphtha prices so high, heavy aromatics and pygas feedstock for producing benzene are not only expensive but are also in tight supply due to operating rate cutbacks. Longer term also, as we've already discussed here, there are major doubts over... Posted Jan 20 2008, 01:47 PM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: China, technology, aromatics, Projects, Oil & Gas, Markets, Naphtha & other feedstocks

• Japanese gloom builds as earnings fall

  Yet more gloom - the world's second-biggest economy appears to be slowing down as the effects of the sub-prime crisis spread . What will this mean for Japan's chemical industry, which in the first half of the current financial year suffered badly... Posted Dec 21 2007, 08:16 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: Economics, Japan, Projects, US housing slump, sub-prime misery, cyclicality

• Where does Dow/PIC go from here in Asia?

  What Andrew Liveris didn't address when interviewed over the Dow/PIC deal is what the $19bn olefins and polymers deal could mean for Asia, the Middle East and commodities . All the talk was of specialities with speculation sure to be rife over the... Posted Dec 16 2007, 11:28 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: China, Dow Chemical, Olefins, Projects, Oil & Gas, Naphtha & other feedstocks, gas shortages, Kuwait, PIC