By Malini Hariharan The long-awaited merger between PTT Chem and PTT Aromatics (PTTAR) was finally announced last week. A presentation made to financial analysts gave details on what the merged entity will look like, planned synergies and opportunities for growth. The new company with a total petrochemical capacity of 8.261m tonnes/year and petroleum products capacity […]
Asian Chemical Connections
India projects see more delays
By Malini Hariharan The blog has been updating the status of Indian petrochemical projects and has found that many are running behind schedule. Reliance Industries’ mega cracker at Jamnagar has yet to get off the starting block. The company is holding on to an end-2014 start schedule for the 1.4m-1.6m tonnes/year cracker which will be […]
PX: Still going strong
By Malini Hariharan Paraxylene (PX) markets are on a roll. Prices have risen by 20% since the beginning of the year and were assessed at around $1,620/tonne cfr Asia late last week by ICIS pricing. One contract nomination for March was out yesterday with JX Nippon Oil proposing a $110/tonne increase to $1,730/tonne cfr Asia. […]
Crude firm but naphtha under pressure
By Malini Hariharan Asian naphtha prices, which were expected to remain firm this quarter, have come under pressure as large volumes of European material are heading towards this region. Naphtha was trading at around $885/tonne cfr Japan last evening supported only by the strength in crude oil prices with WTI at $91.69/bbl and Brent at […]
Total waits for Qatar to decide
By Malini Hariharan Qatar Petroleum seems to be in no rush to sign up a foreign partner for its next cracker project. With doubts about ExxonMobil’s participation, the field has narrowed to Total Petrochemicals and Shell. Total’s proposal for a mixed-feed cracker ‘was still in the very early stages,’ said Graeme Burnett, the company’s senior […]
The big PTA headache
By Malini Hariharan If sourcing PTA has been challenging this year, the bad news is that the situation is unlikely to improve for the next couple of years. Rapid polyester capacity expansion, especially in China and India, is already outpacing growth in PTA capacities and the situation is set to worsen. PTA producers, on the […]
Chemicals And Polymer Prices Behave As We Predicted
By John Richardson AS the blog had anticipated would happen, there were sharp retreats in some chemicals and polymers pricing late last week on the steep declines in equity and crude prices. Polyethylene (PE) fell by $70-130/tonne, according to our colleagues at ICIS pricing, as the Dalian Commodity Exchange once again demonstrated that it has become […]
Facts, Fiction And Price-Rise Sustainability
Source of picture: tycoonreport.com By John Richardson This is a very dangerous time for petrochemicals producers as they attempt to separate real, sustainable demand from feedstock-cost related price rises and speculation. A bubble – as we discussed yesterday – seems to have formed in purified terephthalic (PTA) and, according to ICIS news, in […]
China, Russia To Boost Iranian Ethylene Trade?
Iran’s South Pars gas field Source of picture: www.petropars.com By John Richardson THE ability of Iran to further exploit its huge natural gas reserves – and in so doing maintain ethylene exports at constant levels throughout the year – now appears to hinge on Chinese investment (Western companies have withdrawn from the Iranian energy […]
Middle East Study Casts Doubt On Downstream Strategy
Petro Rabigh Source of picture: arabianoilandgas.com By John Richardson Petro Rabigh’s attempt to move further down the value chain raises interesting questions over exactly how successful the Saudi joint venture will be in attracting the necessary investment. As my fellow blogger Malini Hariharan wrote earlier this week, plans for the second phase of Petro […]
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