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Asian Chemical Connections

China’s growth conundrum

I couldn’t let today pass without including a picture of the Olympic Stadium in Beijing where the opening ceremony is about to take place. The purpose of this redefined blog is not to look at the short term, though. For expert commentaey on the effects of the Olympics and other macroeconomic factors on the world’s […]

The CO2 blame game

In my previous post, I talked about the collapse of the Doha round of trade negotiations and how this didn’t auger well for a new global agreement for setting greenhouse gas-emission limits and a worldwide price on carbon. The chemicals industry needs clarity. A global price for carbon would enable companies to plan R&D investments […]

Why the Doha failure is bad

The failure, and quite possibly the death, of the Doha round of trade negotiations earlier this week could create a very confusing and erratic regulatory landscape for the chemicals industry. This excellent entry in the New Scientist environment blog by Fred Pearce, senior environment correspondent, makes the point that if the world cannot agree on […]

Middle East and China to run C2s regardless….

….that’s the case – in the Middle East case because of advantaged feedstock and in China’s case because it will be strategic. In previous downturns, far more capacity was western, or other Asian, and liquids based and so rate cuts brought markets more quickly into balance. The graphs below from ICIS Plants & Projects data […]

Shell plans for the long-term

See below for an extended interview with Shell Chemicals vice president, Ben van Beurden, who talks of the search for new feedstock sources. He raises the possiblity of using syngas from the Pearl GTL project in Qatar to make methanol and then olefins. Or perhaps the high paraffinic naphtha and ethane from the same project […]

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