ICIS Blogs : petrochemicals

Ouch! That hurts

India Chemicals Blog — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:44:06 GMT

I have been hearing that the Indian government will soon announce preliminary antidumping duty (ADD) on polypropylene (PP) imports from Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Oman. A few lucky producers/exporters have escaped but there are many who face a stiff...(read more)

Stimulus planned for textiles

India Chemicals Blog — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:09:34 GMT

India's synthetic fibre and fibre intermediate produces will be happy to know that the textile industry is likely to soon receive a number of incentives from the government. A stimulus package, due to be announced next month, would include subsidies...(read more)

Students still love IT

India Chemicals Blog — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:08:01 GMT

Indian information technology (IT) companies may no longer be queuing up at campuses for fresh graduates but engineering students continue to rank this sector above all others, according to the latest Nielsen Campus Track T-Schools study . Chemicals,...(read more)

Reliance struggles with troubled Trevira

India Chemicals Blog — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:00:10 GMT

Trevira was Reliance's first global acquisition and was expected to be the start of a wider programme to extend Reliance's global reach through mergers and acquisitions. But just five years later Trevira is once again on the block after filing...(read more)

New Mangalore refinery shelved

India Chemicals Blog — Thu, 28 May 2009 07:33:22 GMT

ONGC has taken a difficult but sensible decision. It has finally shelved plans for a new 15m tonnes/year refinery and petrochemical complex at Mangalore. The project had been facing considerable resistance from the local population. In addition, questions...(read more)

Will a new broom sweep clean?

India Chemicals Blog — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:23:21 GMT

It is good to be back to some good news. The election is finally over and the UPA has been voted back to power with promises of stability and more reforms. But the chemicals industry will have to deal with a new minister as Ram Vilas Paswan was not be...(read more)

Reason to cheer

India Chemicals Blog — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:48:33 GMT

This post is for all my Indian friends who still have their jobs. ECA International expects India to see an average salary increase of around 10.8% this year, down from the double-digit growth seen in the last few years but still the highest in Asia Pacific...(read more)

Green lobby strikes again

India Chemicals Blog — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:40:59 GMT

Chemplast Sanmar's new PVC plant is ready but commissioning remains uncertain as the company faces two petitions in the Supreme Court against the company's marine terminal facility that would be used to import vinyl chloride monomer feedstock...(read more)

Confronting China

India Chemicals Blog — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:00:13 GMT

It's the turn of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to highlight the threat of cheap Chinese imports . "The threat of dumping of cheap Chinese products in India is real and serious," says Venu Srinivasan, the new president of the...(read more)

New twist in Bhatinda story

India Chemicals Blog — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:21:43 GMT

Is Lakshmi Mittal having second thoughts about participating in the Bhatinda refinery project? This report suggests that Mittal might walk out of the project if the state government does not extend fiscal incentives that had been promised a few years...(read more)

Moody's sees negative outlook for Asian petchems

Chemicals & The Economy — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:15:39 GMT

Its not just the World Bank that is concerned about the outlook for East Asia. Today, Moody's (the ratings agency) says it has a negative outlook for the petrochemical sector over the next 12-18 months. It concludes: • "In response to weakening...(read more)

Self-preservation first

India Chemicals Blog — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:23:06 GMT

India is aggressively moving to protect domestic companies with more news trickling in on safeguard and antidumping duties. The government is planning to initiate safeguard duty investigations on Chinese imports of 12-13 products from the chemicals and...(read more)

NPRA IPC - advance delegate registrations hit 2200

ICIS Chemicals Confidential — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:11:10 GMT

There's just two weeks to go until the NPRA IPC conference, and the organisers have sent out the advance registration list showing 2,200 delegates had registered by 9 March 2009. The annual International Petrochemical Conference (IPC) of the National...(read more)

Dow pays $78.97/share for Rohm & Haas

Chemicals & The Economy — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:57:03 GMT

The blog has always had enormous respect for Dow. This was due to their ability to manage unconventional risks, in a way that other chemical companies (such as the blog's former employer, ICI), found impossible. Even when things went wrong, they always...(read more)

Cracker margins remain under pressure

Chemicals & The Economy — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:57:57 GMT

The chart above, from Paul Ray's excellent 'ICIS Weekly Margin Report', clearly shows the level of pain currently being suffered by naphtha-based cracker operators. Based on European pricing, it also demonstrates the great difference between...(read more)