Will this year’s K-Fair see some major announcements to take advantage of the relative fall in ethylene costs? Source of picture; http://www.k-online.de/ By John Richardson THE rise in the price of propylene relative to ethylene is exercising the minds of senior executives in the polypropylene (PP) industry. As fellow blogger Paul Hodges highlighted earlier […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Aromatics May Suffer From Strong Reformer Economics
By John Richardson ASIAN aromatics producers are struggling from an oversupply driven both by weak demand for their products and strong overall reformer economics, the blog has been told. As this chart below illustrates for benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX), the price declines for these base chemicals mirror those we have reported on extensively in […]
Honam Set For Further Buys After Titan Deal
The layout of the Pasir Gudang complex Source of picture: Titan Chemicals By John Richardson and Malini Hariharan HONAM Petrochemical’s plan to buy Malaysia’s Titan Chemicals for $1.5bn – which was announced today – is likely to be followed by further buys, including a refiner, an industry observer has told the blog. “I am […]
Yansab results reflect Saudi gas problems
By Malini Hariharan Yansab posted a net profit Saudi Riyal (SR)502.4m ($134.0m) in the second quarter, its first full quarter of commercial operations. However, results could have been better if its plants had run at full capacity. Analysts at NCB Capital estimate that average utilization rate was below their expectation of 93% for the quarter. […]
China GDP Reduction Spells Tough H2 For Chems
Source of picture: www.en.cn.national By John Richardson THE decline in China’s GDP (gross domestic product) growth from 11.9% in Q1 to 10.3% in the first quarter is, no matter how you try to dress it up, bad news for the chemicals industry. Government officials and some economists are arguing that the moderation is […]
Qatar Petroleum, ExxonMobil Delay Qatar Cracker
By John Richardson Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil have delayed the start-up of their 1.6m tonne/year cracker and derivatives project in Qatar, my colleague Anna Jagger reported on ICIS news yesterday – quoting sources familiar with the project. This confirms an earlier media report to this effect – and adds the extra details that start-up of […]
Asian Ethylene, PE Declines Continue
By John Richardson ASIAN ethylene and polyethylene (PE) margins both fell last week – a further indication that the Chinese market remains weak. Bonded warehouses are still full of PE as a result of high imports in March at a time when local production was being ramped up, the blog was told this morning. But […]
Iran Petchems Hit By New Sanctions
Source of picture: irantrip1wordpress.com By John Richardson IRAN’S ability to further develop its oil, gas and petrochemicals sectors has received further major blows from new rounds of United Nations and US sanctions. One June 9, the UN approved a fourth round of sanctions on the country, including restrictions on financial transactions, a […]
Mood Becomes Gloomy On Macro Dangers
Dear Readers – here is, hopefully, a hand summary of some of the key themes that have emerged over the past two weeks with some important additional data on imports and inventory levels in China – plus a rather unscientific industry confidence survey. By John Richardson The mood seems to have changed since the […]
German World Cup Win And A Double-Dip Recession?
Please, please not again… Source of picture: soccernet.espn.go.com By John Richardson The dreadful state of China’s polyethylene (PE) market will last for at least the next two months as a result of the overstocking we talked about earlier this week and poor demand, two polyolefin traders told the blog today. And […]
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