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Asian Chemical Connections

China’s Environmental Balancing Act

A woman wearing a mask looks across the Pudong on 16 January this year Source of picure: Zuma/Rex Features   By John Richardson A DISPUTE between state-owned refiners Sinopec and PetroChina and environmental regulators serves as a good example of the difficulties China faces in reforming its growth model. The debate about the environment is […]

Ten Solutions For The Global Economy

By John Richardson LAST week we highlighted how a Boston Consulting Group study has reached many of the same conclusions as our e-book, Boom, Gloom & The New Normal, on the fault lines in the global economy. Similarly, many of the ten solutions suggested in the study are in line with what we think needs […]

Beijing Smog Highlights Reform Agenda

Picture: HAP/Quirky China News/Rex Features   By John Richardson THE toxic smog that enveloped Beijing over the weekend is another example of why China’s new leaders simply have to change the economic growth model. At its worst point on Saturday night, the level of harmful particulates in the air reached as much as 36 times […]

US Support For Big China Shale Gas Challenge…..

……..Significant Commercial Production “At least Ten Years Away” By John Richardson A US-China Shale Gas Training Programme has been launched by the independent White House agency, the US Trade & Development Agency (USTDA). An initial $378,000 will be invested to enable the US industry to travel to China and “help introduce Chinese energy sector officials […]

European Petchems Face Tough Choices

  By John Richardson AT LEAST one global polyolefins producer is rumoured to be shipping increased volumes of resin from the US to Europe in response to the shale gas-derived shift in competitiveness. “Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris is making a call on the global economy – one of multi-year slow growth – and adjusting […]

US Manufacturing Exam Question

A lot more than just the standard Model T.,,, Source of picture: cCSU Archv/Everett/Rex Features By John Richardson THE question on my exam paper this Monday morning is what this outstanding article by the author, Charles Fishman, in The Atlantic magazine, means for the petrochemical industry. We have all become used to the idea of the […]

The Next Game Changer: Ample Saudi Ethane

Picture: US shale gas worker Source: Image Broker/Rex Features   By John Richardson SHALE-GAS exploration in northern Saudi Arabia shows tremendous promise, said an industry observer on the sidelines of last week’s seventh Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) conference in Dubai. “The main purpose of the Saudi Aramco project is to generate methane for […]

US Oil: Nothing Is Uncertain As Certainty

By John Richardson ALL of yesterday’s excitement about the US overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia by 2017 to become the world’s biggest oil producer – and exceeding Russia to become the world’s biggest gas producer by 2015 – needs to be taken with a very large pinch of salt. The release of the International Energy […]

China’s Intellectual Property Challenge

Wen Jiabao – stepping down Source of picture: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features    In the last of our series of posts on China’s leadership handover, which begins today as the 18th Party Congress meets, we look at intellectua property rights protection.   By John Richardson WHY bother innovating in China when a state-owned, or state-backed, company is able to steal […]

Reliance Goes Boldly

Source: ICIS   By John Richardson Reliance Industries is going boldly (no split infinitives here) where nobody has gone before: It is to build a cracker, which could eventually produce 1.6m tonne/year of ethylene, based entirely on off-gas feedstock supplied by its 1.24m tonne/year of refinery capacity at Jamnagar, Gujarat, India. Nobody has attempted anything […]

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