By Malini Hariharan I have been reading a transcript of Dow Chemical’s Q4 2009 earnings call and here are some interesting comments made by Andrew Liveris, the company’s ceo. Despite recording revenue and volume growth in 2009 Liveris was cautious on the outlook for 2010 citing an uncertain economic environment. But constraints in Middle East […]
Asian Chemical Connections
The Dangers Of A Three-Year-Old’s Attention Span
“Hello everybody – welcome to the island of Sodor. Time to flip your positions’ Source of picture: www.dragoart.com By John Richardson MY three-year-old son has, quite rightly, an incredibly short attention span. A child of that age should be overwhelmed with the excitement of lots of wonderful experiences and possibilities. But I would argue that […]
Braskem makes its first US move; acquires Sunoco PP assets
By Malini Hariharan Less then a week after the blog had highlighted Braskem’s plans for global growth through acquisitions the company has announced that it will buy the polypropylene (PP) assets of US-based Sunoco. The $350m deal, still subject to regulatory approvals, gives Braskem 950,000 tonnes/year of US capacity and makes it the third largest […]
Corrected:Asian Naphtha-Ethylene Spreads Touch 2007 Levels
We should have originally written ‘integrated low-density polyethylene (LDPE) in paragraphsix, but instead wrote linear-low density PE (LLDPE). It’s now been corrected and apologies for the error – we will be buying some better glasses (less of this “we” – it’s actually “me”!) By John Richardson The rise in ethylene prices to what ICIS pricing says is […]
Refinery Profit Squeeze Threat To Petchems
“Any Old Iron?” Source of picture: http://www.investorfsbo.com/refinery.html By John Richardson A LONG-TERM shift in refinery economics is posing a major threat to petrochemical margins – along with the delayed supply crisis that’s likely to hit the industry at some point over the next year. “Refiners, when the global economy was booming and particularly after […]
SK moving to China?
South Korean producers have for long been dependent on the Chinese market to absorb a large percentage of their output. So it is perhaps not surprising to read that SK Energy plans to move the headquarters of its chemicals division to China. It is also said to be looking at hiving off the chemicals business […]
Map Ta Phut impasse continues
By Malini Hariharan There is no light yet for companies whose projects have been suspended at Map Ta Phut. Last Friday, Thailand’s Central Administrative Court rejected 30 petitions submitted by companies looking to resume work as their projects had received environmental clearance and would not create pollution. “The outlook is not promising,” says a Bangkok-based […]
China PVC Capacity Binge Clobbers Northeast Asia
By John Richardson CHINA’S capacity expansions in industries including steel, aluminium and petrochemicals continue to astound. Take polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for example., where, according to a new report by ChemSystems, “capacity (in China) has expanded from 5m tonne/year in 2003 to over 15m tonne/year in 2009, almost 90 percent of total global capacity expansion over […]
Beware The Motives of Optimists
By John Richardson IT is always useful to make a note of both what economists are saying and where they are coming from. To give you an example, I was at a conference last year when I heard a ridiculously rosy outlook for both emerging and developed economies, delivered by an economist working for a […]
Post merger Braskem talks of global growth through acquisitions
By Malini Hariharan After overcoming legal objections, Braskem took the final step late last week to announce the merger of the petrochemical operations of Petrobras, Odebrecht and Quattor, to create not only Brazil’s largest petrochemical company but also America’s largest polymer producer. The plan now is to develop the company to become one of the […]
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