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Asian Chemical Connections

China’s rising labour costs – a blessing in disguise?

By Malini Hariharan With so much happening in petrochemical markets the blog has not had time to comment on the ongoing turmoil in China’s labour market. But we had noted a few months back that factories in southern China were experiencing labour shortages and preparing to pay more as minimum wages in Guangdong province had […]

China Chem Imports May Fall On Yuan Expectation

As cheap as chips    Source of picture: europa.eu     By John Richardson THE decline in the Euro has resulted in investors downgrading their expectations of a Yuan appreciation taking place over the next few months. Last week, Yuan foward contracts were factoring in a zero chance of appreciation over the next three months after […]

China flexes its muscles

By Malini Hariharan If you are trying to find an explanation for the recent price movement in Asian polyolefin markets, a report in today’s Wall Street Journal offers some clues. China, says the report, has been eating into some of its reserves resulting in a decline in prices of commodities such as refined copper, iron […]

Old Assumptions Might Belatedly Change

  Source of picture: http://www.andrewgriffithsblog.com/     By John Richardson DOOM-MONGERS are scratching their heads as to why the global petrochemicals industry has remained in such a healthy state over the past 18 months. Old assumptions are, as a result, being challenged. It would be a painful irony if these assumptions are changed just as a […]

Sinopec and Iran’s NPC Sign Investment MOU

Out of the investment deep-freeze? Source: tehrandaily.wordpress.com   By John Richardson A VERY interesting story from my colleague Bee Lin Chow on ICIS news today reports the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Sinopec and Iran’s National Petrochemical Co (NPC). The agreement will explore joint- venture opportunities in petrochemicals and related businesses in […]

Petchem stocks attract buying interest

By Malini Hariharan Is this the right time to buy petrochemical stocks? Asian equity analysts are having a tough time answering this question being posed by portfolio managers across the region. They are seeing a ‘mini downcycle’ emerging with a weaker second half relative to H1 2010 and potentially a weak H1 2011, explained one […]

Chemicals Face More Financial Sector Damage

Greed definitely not good for chemicals…. Source of picture: reelmovienews.com   By John Richardson THE chemicals industry is once again confronting the risk of being badly damaged by the ever-more interconnected oil, other hard commodity, currency and equity markets. As fellow blogger Paul Hodges told us last November: “Demand visibility – even without as yet […]

Project activity picks up

Despite the uncertainty surrounding markets prospects and the risk of another demand-led downturn, petrochemical producers are busy planning expansions and new investments. At last week’s Apic conference in Mumbai, a source close to Total Petrochemicals revealed that the company was looking to produce more petrochemicals downstream of its joint-venture refinery project in Saudi Arabia. The […]

Asia Resurgent On Refinery Integration

  Source of picture: omniglobal.com     By John Richardson A FASCINATING theme to emerge from last week’s Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC) in Mumbai was a growing belief in refinery integration in Asia as a means of being able to compete with the Middle East. Reliance Industries is planning a giant cracker complex based largely, […]

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