By John Richardson OVERCONFIDENCE is perhaps the biggest risk for 2011 as a result of sales volumes that have this year exceeded even the most wildly optimistic forecasts. The danger is that we have yet to see the worst of this current petrochemicals cycle. Companies and chemicals analysts might have got a little ahead […]
Asian Chemical Connections
US Shale Gas: The Truth Versus Perception
Source of picture: alfin2100blogspot.com By John Richardson SINCE when has the truth mattered in the battle between environmentalists and the oil, gas and chemicals industries? This is a game of perception on both sides as estimates of risk are heavily subject to data that is either biased in the way it is collected or […]
India’s plastic problems
By Malini Hariharan A surprise court order in India earlier this month has put pressure on plastic packaging and has raised the risk of restrictions on its use in a very popular segment – cheap sachets or pouches that are used to pack a wide variety of consumer products ranging from shampoo to tobacco. The […]
A subdued end to a good year
By Malini Hariharan Petrochemical markets, with a few exceptions, will be closing the year on a quiet note. In polyolefins, buying activity in China has slowed down and sentiment remains weak weighed down by the Chinese government’s decision to hike bank reserve requirements. This is despite the recent rally in crude oil prices. Prices of […]
China Polyolefins Divorced From Fundamentals
A permanent separation? Source of picture: edu.com By John Richardson IT IS pretty easy to predict specific events that will cause declines in polyolefins pricing in China next year thanks to the big role that macro-economics now plays in setting the market. No longer do you need to mainly sweat over increasingly difficult polyethylene […]
OPEC, China Inflation And Petchems
By John Richardson OPEC’s decision to maintain crude quotas at current levels could give the banks further ammunition to manipulate opinion that the black stuff is genuinely in tight supply. There is plenty of evidence that oil is, in fact, still pretty long – and that this bull-run is yet again about speculators talking up […]
Petchems And Tomorow’s OPEC Meeting
By John Richardson THE next OPEC meeting – which takes place in Ecuador this Saturday (11 December) – is crucial for petrochemicals for two reasons. Firstly, the crude market has turned bullish recently as a result of the early onset of winter in Europe and the growing belief that the oil-supply cushion is being reduced. […]
India PE in a tight spot
By Malini Hariharan It is not just China where polyethylene (PE) producers face problems. Indian producers have been struggling to place volumes as huge imports during the last couple of months have saturated the domestic market. PE import volumes were said to have hit a record high of 104,000 tonnes in October. And my colleague […]
December Polyolefin Price Rises Flounder
“I am so happy to be supporting polyethylene film pricing”…. Source of picture: Canada-China Agriculture and Food Development Exchange By John Richardson IT looks as if attempts by polyolefin producers to raise prices for December deliveries have, as we predicted last week, been largely unsuccessful. Some grades of polypropylene (PP) edged up by $10-20/tonne […]
Delays at yet another cracker project
By Malini Hariharan The blog is hearing about fresh delays at ONGC Petro-Additions Ltd’s (OPaL) cracker project at Dahej on the west coast of India. Conceived a few years back, the dual-feed 1.1m cracker project, based on ethane separated from LNG and naphtha supplied by parent ONGC, has been jinxed from the start. There have […]
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