By John Richardson IT has become the accepted wisdom over the last few years that the coal-to-olefins (CTO) process in China consumes a lot of water. This theory has been expressed in so many conference papers and in research papers that this “truism” is part of just about every discussion on the viability of CTO […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China’s Polyolefins Supply Surge: The Bigger Picture
By John Richardson ON paper, the polyolefins supply surge in China during 2014 is huge as it involves: Some 2.2m tonnes/year of new polyethylene (PE) capacity, according to this ICIS news article. No less than 4.1m tonnes/year of new polypropylene (PP) capacity. To put this into context, China’s total effective capacity was estimated by ICIS […]
Global Petchems Industry Must Prepare For More Difficult 2015
THE direction of Asian polyethylene markets, once again, serves as a good guide for the overall global petrochemicals industry. Producers in every region and in every sector of our industry should, therefore, take note of what follows. They must prepare for what we worry will be a much more challenging 2015. By John Richardson […]
Finding A Home For US Polyethylene Expansions
By John Richardson EVEN if you take a benign view of the future of the US economy (which, separately, we think is the wrong view), the planned increases in US polyethylene (PE) capacity still raise this very important question: Where on earth will all of this stuff go? The chart above illustrates our assessment of […]
What A “Low Growth World” Really Looks Like
By John Richardson ONLY six new US crackers would be built over the next five years because of rising construction and labour costs, said Dow Chemical’s CEO, Andrew Liveris, in an earnings conference call last week. This would be out of the 12 crackers that have been announced (see the above table). Demand would therefore […]
China Coal-To-Olefins: Water Not An Issue
By John Richardson CONVENTIONAL wisdom has it that the water issue stands in the way of the growth of the coal-to-olefins (CTO) industry in China. The process consumes a lot of water – between 15-20 tonnes for every tonne of olefins produced – which compares with 0.80-2.17 tonnes of water for every tonne of oil […]
European Political Suicide Seems Unlikely
By John Richardson For once, we are not going to talking about demand but will instead focus only on supply. “In all scenarios, the US captures market share away from Europe,” the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) chief economist, Kevin Swift, said in a presentation last week. As my colleague Nigel Davis, in another of excellent […]
China’s Petchem Markets Contradict Latest PMI
By John Richardson IF you study China’s petrochemicals markets on a regular basis they tell you something very important: That despite persistent efforts to tighten-up supply across several sectors in order to entice end-users into stock building, “hand-to-mouth” purchasing remains their policy. For example, polypropylene (PP) import prices firmed on a heavy turnaround season in […]
US To Lose Out To China In Energy Race
By John Richardson ARE you either a “tree hugger” or a “climate science denier”? If you fall into one of these two categories, you will be one of the dwindling minority of people who support a multi-faceted approach to US energy policy, according to a US petrochemicals industry source. “The tree huggers are those who […]
China’s Methanol Industry: Through The Looking Glass
By John Richardson AT first glance, some of the facts relating to China’s methanol sector sound like Jabberwocky sounded to Alice when she firs discovered the language of that name in the marvellous Lewis Carroll novel, Alice Through The Looking Glass. Here are some examples of what we are talking about, from our colleagues at […]
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