By Malini Hariharan Confirmation has come in from the Siam Cement Group (SCG) that it is in the race to acquire stakes in two Indonesian companies – Chandra Asri and Sulfindo Adiusaha. “We are interested in both firms in Indonesia as petrochemicals are SCG’s core business. But we cannot disclose anything at the moment because […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Formosa up but not out of the woods yet
By Malini Hariharan Operations at the Formosa group of companies in Mailiao, Taiwan, are slowly resuming but the group faces an uphill task in regaining public and government confidence in its ability to run plants safely. There have been seven accidents in the last twelve months with two fires at the Mailiao complex in July. […]
Chandra Asri stake up for sale?
By Malini Hariharan Indonesia’s sole cracker operator Chandra Asri faces yet another ownership change with Singapore’s Temasek Holding reported to be looking at divesting its stake in the company. The news report in the Wall Street Journal said several companies from Thailand, South Korea and Japan have shown interest in Temasek’s stake, including Thailand’s PTT […]
Rocky road ahead
By Malini Hariharan Asian polyolefin producers confront yet another challenging week. The macro environment suggests that implementing price hikes for September cargoes will be difficult. Stock markets around the world continue to be jittery with concerns about a US recession and debt problems in Europe still in the forefront. Support from oil also appears uncertain. […]
Yet another week of price corrections
By Malini Hariharan Asian petrochemical markets continue to face downward pressure on concerns about the health of the global economy. Market sentiment for most products remains poor with buyers in no rush to resume purchases. Polyolefin markets closed last week on a weak note. Prices of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) dropped $10-40/tonne last […]
High Frequency Trading dominates as markets crash
by Paul Hodges The Chemicals and the Economy blog was almost alone at the end of April, when it launched the IeC Downturn Alert. Today, its fear that we are close to a global downturn has become mainstream. As the American Chemistry Council report, “fears of another global recession are rising with several noted forecasters […]
India petchem projects update
By Malini Hariharan India’s major petrochemical projects are inching forward very slowly and the blog will not be surprised if there are more delays along the way. Reliance has yet to kick start its 1.4-1.6m tonnes/year cracker project adjacent to two refineries at Jamnagar, on the west coast of India. The cracker will be based […]
Formosa’s troubles deepen, markets rally on supply concerns
By Malini Hariharan The latest accident at Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s (FPCC) refinery at Mailiao, Taiwan, on Sunday is adding to the bullish sentiment in markets for key petrochemicals. A fire in the propylene recovery unit has forced the company to close its 540,000 bbls/day refinery and related facilities, including two residual fluid catalytic cracking units […]
Dow To Sell PP to Braskem
DOW Chemical is to sell its polypropylene (PP) business to Brazil’s Braskem for $340m, according to our colleagues at ICIS news. The blog is digging around for the implications for Dow in Asia. For the time being, however, here are some initial thoughts…. Included in the sales are two plants in the US and two […]
India Polymers Shine But Questions Persist
By Malini Hariharan Optimism has returned to the Indian polymer market fuelled by a sharp recovery in prices and buying sentiment over the last few weeks across Asia. The talk these days is mainly about tightness in availability of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) and when producers will announce the next price hike. Supply is […]
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