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Asian Chemical Connections

India set to announce final ADD on PP

By Malini Hariharan India’s long-running investigation into dumping of polypropylene (PP) from Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Oman is inching to a close. Final anti-dumping duties (ADD) are expected to be announced soon, say industry sources. Affected producers have made their case but are unlikely to escape from ADD. Provisional duties, ranging from $44.40 to $1033.65/tonne, […]

Old Assumptions Might Belatedly Change

  Source of picture: http://www.andrewgriffithsblog.com/     By John Richardson DOOM-MONGERS are scratching their heads as to why the global petrochemicals industry has remained in such a healthy state over the past 18 months. Old assumptions are, as a result, being challenged. It would be a painful irony if these assumptions are changed just as a […]

Asia Resurgent On Refinery Integration

  Source of picture: omniglobal.com     By John Richardson A FASCINATING theme to emerge from last week’s Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC) in Mumbai was a growing belief in refinery integration in Asia as a means of being able to compete with the Middle East. Reliance Industries is planning a giant cracker complex based largely, […]

Greek Bonds And Chemicals

Gillian Tett: Worth Listening To   Source of picture: afponline.org   By John Richardson The excellent journalist Gillian Tett, whose book on the financial crisis – Fool’s Gold is well worth a read – again hits the nail on the head in this piece in today’s Financial Times. She says that if the whole of […]

Singapore Value-add Chem Announcements Expected Soon

Ben van Beurden of Shell Chemicals   Source of picture: Shell.com   By John Richardson SINGAPORE looks set to soon make some further announcements on high-value investments downstream of the new Shell Eastern Petrochemical Co (SEPC) cracker. The complex – which comprises an 800,000 tonne/year mixed-feed cracker and a 750,000 tonne/year OMEGA process monoethylene glycol […]

China Polyolefins – A Bad Case Of Indigestion

By John Richardson IT IS always dangerous to assume that the future will be exactly the same as the past – a big lesson from the recent financial crisis. But so seems to have been the assumption amongst China’s polyolefin traders late last year as a close look at import statistics for December and January, […]

Dealing With The Middle East Logistics Challenge

Singapore’s container port     Source of picture: www.gcaptain.com By Malini Hariharan and John Richardson A big challenge facing many companies that have built large polymer plants that are located far from key markets is how to move product most efficiently. These facilities have been built to take advantage of competitive feedstocks in regions such as […]

China Polyolefin Buyers Smell Blood……

…..but time to party for some thanks to re-exports to Brazil Source of picture: edgsgonesouth.com   By John Richardson It’s a funny old world – or so it seems in poylolefins at the moment as traders re-export resin from China to Latin America and elsewhere. “I phoned up a trader in China the other day […]

Asian propylene pricing heading for “a crash”

By John Richardson PROPYLENE pricing is heading for “a crash” in Asia as a result of spot supply increasing by around 20,000 tonne/month, a senior industry source has told the blog. Shell Chemicals will have a surplus 440,000 tonne/year of C3s from its Singapore cracker – in the process of starting up right now – […]

SEA Chemicals Need To Learn From The Past

By John Richardson THE whinging is getting almost unbearable in Southeast Asia over the Asean-China Free-Trade Agreement (ACFTA). The deal was under discussion for EIGHT years and yet chemicals and polymer producers and customers seem to have left it until after-the-fact to start raising objections. Indonesian industry association representatives have gone as far as to […]

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