By Malini Hariharan The Chinese are back from their holidays and they are buying. This coupled with supply constraints and firm crude prices is fuelling a surge in petrochemical prices. Paraxylene (PX) prices hit a 2-year high this week on speculative activity and production problems at a couple of Chinese plants, reports ICIS news. Spot […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China MTO/MTP – one more project starts
By Malini Hariharan Shenhua Ningxia has finally produced onspec propylene at its new 470,000 tonnes/year methanol-to-propylene (MTP) plant after starting trial operations last month. This marks the successful start of China’s first MTP project, which is also the world’s largest. There is one more due by the end of the year -Datang Power’s 450,000 tonnes/year […]
Getting Education Right Is Crucial
The brightest and the best, but will there be enough of them? Source of picture: schoolsinnewdelhi.com By John Richardson EDUCATION, education and education are three of the biggest challenges facing developing countries over the next 10-20 years. This will determine overall growth of economies. Without the right skill sets the rapid rates of […]
Abandon Fear And Plan For The New Utopia
Michael Corleone once told his fiancee, “The old way of doing things is over – even my father knows that. In ten years time, the Corleone family will be entirely legitimitate” and ten years later he was still killing lots of people. So beware of what follows… Source of picture: www.i-italy.com By John Richardson […]
Japan More Competitive Than You Might Think
Tokyo at nightSource of picture: liveworldtours.com By Malini Hariharan it is easy to write off the Japanese petrochemicals industry which has for long struggled to find a solution to the dual pressure of rising global competition and an anaemic home market. Japanese companies, once at the forefront of the Asian industry, have […]
Distorting The Outlook For 2011
Source of picture: http://www.intentblog.com By John Richardson and Malini Hariharan THE view from a particular geography, grade of polyolefin or end-use application might be distorting the outlook for 2011. In China and India and other emerging markets demand growth continues to astound and even though the rates of expansion might have slowed down […]
Wrong Assumptions Drive Shipping, C2 Investments
The goat has been got Source of picture: michaelscomments.wordpress.com By John Richardson EARLIER this week we blogged on the 25 or so ethylene carriers that could be delivered into the shipping market by 2013 and the risk this poses to freight rates. Thanks to one of our readers, Mark Mirosevic-Sorgo – managing director of […]
The perils of forecasting
By Malini Hariharan This is a tough time for those who are in the business of forecasting. Predictions of petrochemical margins hitting the bottom in 2009 have so far not materialised and volumes from new plants are being digested quite easily. “What’s happening? It is hard to understand the [market] situation; until when can you […]
Iran Sanctions Lead To Illegal Shipments Claim
Source of picture: http://www.westernesa.com/ By John Richardson AN allegation has been made that traders could be changing bills of lading on cargoes of a certain liquids chemical being shipped out of Iran in an effort to get round tougher international sanctions. “What is I suspect is happening is that a cargo loaded in Iran […]
Don’t worry, be happy
By Malini Hariharan The blog was able to talk to a Korean polyolefins producer who was not perturbed by the recent weakness in Chinese demand and was fairly confident of selling October volumes. “It’s the holiday season so converters do not want to buy. But I see no reason to lower prices. We have sold […]
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