in
All Tags » Oil markets » polymers (RSS)

Browse by Tags

  • Benzene drops to naphtha price

    Benzene is an excellent indicator of the outlook for industrial production, and hence for general chemical demand. Thus tonight's ICIS news report that prices for benzene and its naphtha feedstock, are close to parity (around $390/t), tells us just how dire market conditions have become. The blog...
    Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 10-27-2008

  • A dip or a downturn? (2)

    Sometimes markets move because of sentiment, sometimes because of fundamentals. Sometimes (luckily rarely), because of blind panic. The latter is what we are seeing at the moment. Investors suddenly feel they MUST sell - whether because they need the cash, have completely lost confidence, or because...
    Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 10-26-2008

  • 'Demand and prices in free fall'

    The moment the blog has long feared, and warned about , may be about to arrive. It appears that we may be about to revisit 1980, when for some weeks it seemed that demand for many petchem products had simply stopped. As Nigel Davis notes in an excellent ICIS insight article , we are not there yet. But...
    Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 10-07-2008

  • Polymers demand slumps in Europe, China

    ICIS news reports that polymer demand is falling sharply in two key markets, China and Europe. This is a bad omen for demand in other chemical markets, as polymers are closely tied to GDP growth. Linda Naylor reports that PE volumes in Europe may be down 7% in 2008. Meanwhile, John Richardson and Malini...
    Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-28-2008

  • Sinopec cuts back (a little) on petchems

    China's Sinopec has taken a lead in reviewing its petrochemical expansion plans. Speaking to employees last week , Wang Tianpu, CPC division President, noted that 'global crude prices may remain high and the petrochemical industry may become even more competitive'. Today, he gave more details...
    Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-08-2008

  • 'Roll-through' pricing reappears

    Linda Naylor, ICIS's polymers guru, has just written a market analysis that took me straight back to 1980. She described how current feedstock prices meant that 'many of Europe's cracker operators were losing money', and noted that Dow was being 'very firm' in trying to recoup...
    Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 06-18-2008

  • PE margins back to 2003 levels

    The excellent 'ICIS Weekly Margin Report - PE' is starting to tell a very sad story about polymer margins. The chart (above) shows that the ethylene margin, in yellow, has been falling steadily since the start of the year. The same is true for the HDPE margin, in blue. And the Report notes that...
    Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 05-25-2008
Page 1 of 1 (7 items)
© RBI 2008
Powered by Community Server (Commercial Edition), by Telligent Systems