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Asian Chemical Connections

Singapore Confirms Plans For 6-8m tonne/year Ethylene

Jurong Island Source of picture: www.pcs.com.sg   By John Richardson SINGAPORE plans to eventually raise its ethylene capacity to 6-8m tonne/year from the 4m tonne/year which will be reached when ExxonMobil’s second cracker complex at Jurong Island is on-stream, Liang Ting Wee, Director of Energy and Chemicals at the Economic Development Board (EDB), has told […]

Managing expectations

By Malini Hariharan A spurt in Chinese buying enquiries in the last few days has awakened hopes in some quarters of an upturn in polyolefin pricing with one trader predicting a $50-70/tonne rise in the coming weeks. The prediction, he says, is based on his experience with the commodity cycle – as buyers in China […]

China PE, PP Production Up By 30%

By John Richardson and Malini Hariharan CHINA’S polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) production surged in January-June this year as imports remained strong and demand growth declined, according to the Shanghai-based commodity information service, CBI. Hopes being expressed that pricing might have bottomed-out therefore seem a tad premature – especially as Asian cracking operating rates are […]

Iranian PE Seen As Threat To China Price Recovery

By John Richardson IRANIAN polyethylene (PE) exports to China could help to cap or even prevent a recovery in pricing during the second half of this year. Although in volume terms, Iranian material only accounts for a small percentage of the total market, in sentiment and therefore price-setting terms, it seems to be playing an […]

What’s next for Honam?

By Malini Hariharan Honam Petrochemical’s plan to acquire Malaysia’s Titan Chemical could well be the start of the South Korean major’s foray overseas. “Honam will keep looking for other M&A opportunities in the chemicals space,” said a source close to the company. Their interest is not only in basic chemicals but also intermediates and speciality […]

Searching for balance

By John Richardson and Malini Hariharan Cautious optimism first gave way to mounting anxiety over the prospects for the second half of this year, but now the mood surrounding China’s polyolefins market is downright pessimistic. “It is going to take a few months to clear up polyolefin inventories and volumes from new plants,” Mazlan Razak, […]

Honam plans Titan expansion

By Malini Hariharan News is trickling in on Honam Petrochemical‘s plans for Titan Chemicals once it completes the acquisition at the end of the year. A source close to the company said that revamping of Titan’s two crackers have been evaluated including expansion of derivatives and building new downstream units at Titan’s Pasir Gudang complex […]

Propylene And the Law Of Unintended Consequences

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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