By John Richardson “IF YOU want to develop a good memory, you should learn to stop xxxxxxx forgetting, you brain-dead idiot” a former editor of mine often said, in his charming Glaswegian accent, after I had made the same mistake yet again. The same might apply to petrochemicals where maybe, just maybe, shutting down capacity […]
Asian Chemical Connections
The Indian growth story – part 2
By Malini Hariharan A few weeks back I had written about robust demand growth figures emerging from the Indian polymer market. I will be posting some numbers over the next few days but ahead of that I would like to highlight what industry players have been saying on the major growth drivers and also developments […]
What’s behind the delays and operating troubles?
By Malini Hariharan With start-up delays, commissioning issues and operating troubles becoming increasingly common across the Middle East and many parts of Asia, I have been asking industry players on what they think are the major issues that companies are facing. At the top of the list is the shortage of skilled manpower. We have […]
Liveris on the chemical cycle, Dow’s asset-light strategy and Ras Tanura
By Malini Hariharan I have been reading a transcript of Dow Chemical’s Q4 2009 earnings call and here are some interesting comments made by Andrew Liveris, the company’s ceo. Despite recording revenue and volume growth in 2009 Liveris was cautious on the outlook for 2010 citing an uncertain economic environment. But constraints in Middle East […]
China Latest Credit Tightening Blow To Chemicals
By John Richardson CHINA’S decision to temporarily halt lending by some banks – which was announced yesterday – as it attempts to further cool the economy will likely have a significant effect on chemicals demand and pricing. This follows last week’s decision to raise bank reserve requirements and two increases in the inter-bank lending rate […]
Is it time for price corrections?
By Malini Hariharan After experiencing steep price hikes over the last few weeks should seller start preparing for a fall? Signs of resistance and a slowdown in buying are being seen across a few products suggesting that price corrections may be imminent. ICIS news reports today that the price rally in PE and PP in […]
Asia Olefins-Polyolefins To Stay Tight Till April
By John Richardson The tight supply olefin-polyolefin supply that has characterised markets since the first quarter of last year continues with no sign of relief for resin buyers until at least early April. But whereas production problems and start-up delays are likely to remain aplenty, the argument for further price hikes has been undermined by […]
Qatar says there will be one more cracker
By Malini Hariharan Qatar has reconfirmed its commitment to build more petrochemical plants including a new worldscale cracker. At a ceremony to mark the start of construction of Qapco’s new ldPE project, the deputy premier and minister of energy and industry said Qatar was launching an aggressive plan to achieve optimal utilization of the country’s […]
ExxonMobil Gas Buy Supports “Fuel Of The Future” Argument
By John Richardson ExxonMobil’s purchase of XTO Energy for US$41bn seems to support the widely-held view that natural gas is the fuel for the future. XTO specialises in the technology necessary to exploit shale gas and other hard-to-get-at unconventional gas reserves, including the large amounts of shale gas in the US – one of […]
Shell would like to build two MEG plants in Qatar
By John Richardson An ethane shortage is slowing Shell Chemicals’ ambitions for building at least one cracker complex in Qatar, Ben van Beurden, executive vice-president of the company said last week. “Ideally, we’d like to build two crackers and two OMEGA process plants on the scale of this one here in Singapore, but at […]
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