By Malini Hariharan The last year has been rough for Indian polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polystyrene (PS) producers with demand for their products showing almost no growth. PVC consumption is likely to increase by only 1-2% year on year in the fiscal year ending on 31 March 2012, said S Gopal, managing director of Chemplast […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Doing More With Less – The Products Of The Future
THE global economy is moving into a difficult period, as it transitions to the New Normal. Debt levels are high, and incomes are under pressure, particularly for the large numbers of people moving into retirement. Cost must be the key criteria when examining the opportunities for new product development and research. Chapter 8 of our free […]
More PTA for India
By Malini Hariharan India trails far behind China in the polyester business but there is growing interest in new investments that also extends upstream to purified terephthalic acid (PTA). The latest entrant to the projects listing is Thai major Indorama Ventures which has signed an MoU with Indorama Synthetics (India) for an integrated PTA, polyester […]
Weak margins hit earnings
By Malini Hariharan It is the results season and numbers posted so far confirm that the last quarter has been rough with depressed demand, weak product prices and firm feedstock costs affecting earnings. Siam Cement Group’s EBITDA for the chemicals division dropped 25% in Q4 from the previous quarter, while sales revenue declined by 5%. […]
Chems Trade Protectionism On The Rise
By John Richardson TRADE protectionism in chemicals is set to rise during 2012 as a result of a weaker global economy, warned a trade lawyer who specialises in the chemicals industry. “There was a 30-40% increase in the total number of anti-dumping cases in Europe in 2011 over the previous year, and I think this […]
IOC Defers PX/PTA, Proceeds With Acetic Acid, Butene-1
By Malini Hariharan The blog continues with a review of Indian projects. State-owned refinery major Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has deferred its paraxylene (PX) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) projects at Vadodara in Gujarat state, to post 2015. “The project is on hold because of commercial issues; we are looking at the total PX/PTA picture […]
Hits And Misses For Indian Projects
By Malini Hariharan The Indian project scene continues to see some hits and misses. Among the projects on track, sources at Gail (India) told the blog last week that expansion of its Pata cracker and a new polyethylene (PE) plant will be completed in Q1 2014. Mechanical completion is due in December 2013,, while commissioning […]
The Great Opportunities Ahead
The blog is taking a break for the festive season (we will back on Thursday next week before, of course, closing-down again over the New Year period). We would like to wish all of our readers a very happy holiday season and successful 2012. Before we take our leave, here are a few thoughts […]
India Needs A New Political Direction
Manmohan Singh compromises to the point where “policy has no direction” Source of picture: Wikipedia By John Richardson IN A week during which the Eurozone could quite easily break-up, the influence that individual political leaders will have on shaping our economic future has been thrown in to further stark relief. And in some countries it […]
Innovating Down The Value Chain
By John Richardson THE lack of depth and thought behind “analysis” of the economic challenges facing developing economies has worried the blog for some time. It is undoubtedly the case that as hundreds of millions more people in countries such as India and China emerge from poverty, the opportunities for the chemicals industry are enormous. […]
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