Guess who’s coming to Christmas dinner Source of picture: biology.ucf.edu By John Richardson THE widespread problem of surging inflation in Asia ex-Japan is a major threat to petrochemicals demand growth in 2011. Governments need to put the brakes on to prevent economies from overheating. But the problem is that raising interest rates could […]
Asian Chemical Connections
India PE in a tight spot
By Malini Hariharan It is not just China where polyethylene (PE) producers face problems. Indian producers have been struggling to place volumes as huge imports during the last couple of months have saturated the domestic market. PE import volumes were said to have hit a record high of 104,000 tonnes in October. And my colleague […]
Delays at yet another cracker project
By Malini Hariharan The blog is hearing about fresh delays at ONGC Petro-Additions Ltd’s (OPaL) cracker project at Dahej on the west coast of India. Conceived a few years back, the dual-feed 1.1m cracker project, based on ethane separated from LNG and naphtha supplied by parent ONGC, has been jinxed from the start. There have […]
Saudi pressure fails to work
By Malini Hariharan The polypropylene (PP) anti-dumping investigation that Indian producers had initiated against exporters from Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Oman has finally drawn to a close. The Finance Ministry confirmed anti-dumping duties (ADD) late yesterday, just a day before a recommendation made by the Commerce Ministry in August was due to expire. Pic source: […]
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 […]
Reliance Reveals Major Investment Plans
By Malini Hariharan India’s Reliance Industries is evaluating investments in a number of chemicals including olefins and derivatives, acetyls, elastomers and fibre intermediates to increase its petrochemicals production from crude, a senior company executive has told the blog. “We would like to maximise petrochemical production from our refineries, swing product slate from fuel […]
The LPG Cracking Myth Debunked
We are deeply ashamed of ourselves…. By John Richardson AT the risk of boring you completely senseless let us once again return to the subject of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and its likely usefulness as a cracker feedstock over the coming years. The reason why we keep going on and on about this subject […]
Reliance’s polyester play
By Malini Hariharan With Indian polyester demand growing steadily at 10%/year Reliance Industries has renewed its focus on expansions along the chain. Projects that were put on hold after the 2008 economic crisis have been revived and deadlines set. The company’s plans include two new worldscale purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plants and investments in paraxylene […]
Making Everyone Feel A Little Bit Middle Class
Far more choices now… Source of picture: www.mhhe.com/business By John Richardson THE nature of demand growth in emerging markets is a subject the blog has paid some attention to over the last few weeks. Taking advantage of this growth will require the ability to innovate in order to tap into the huge opportunities […]
No Going Back, But Don’t Expect Smooth Ride
Cloth nappies?….you have to be kidding Source of picture: babygavin.com By John Richardson IT IS the biggest transformation that the global economy has probably ever undergone, resulting in numerous opportunities and challenges for the chemicals industry as emerging markets continue to boom. The obvious opportunity is for those who can meet […]
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