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 […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Crunch time for Asian polyolefins
By Malini Hariharan August could well be the time for some tough decisions by Asian polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) producers. Demand has languished for the last three months and although many are hoping for a recovery at the end of this month or in early August, there are as yet no signs of this. […]
China flexes its muscles
By Malini Hariharan If you are trying to find an explanation for the recent price movement in Asian polyolefin markets, a report in today’s Wall Street Journal offers some clues. China, says the report, has been eating into some of its reserves resulting in a decline in prices of commodities such as refined copper, iron […]
Unravelling China’s polyolefin numbers
By Malini Hariharan There is some good and not so good news from China. Import and production numbers for January to April are now available and they tell an interesting story. The good news is that Chinese demand, measured in terms of imports (data from China customs) and local production (data from CBI China), has […]
Price slide intensifies
By Malini Hariharan The weakness in Asian markets is spreading with steep drops also being reported in olefin prices. Ethylene prices dropped by $160-170/tonnes last week while propylene declined $90-110/tonne, writes my colleague Soo Hwee, ICIS pricing editor for olefins. The poor market conditions were attributed to softness in crude oil and naphtha prices as […]
IOC moves ahead with Panipat cracker
By Malini Hariharan Commissioning activity at Indian Oil Corp’s (IOC) new cracker and derivatives complex at Panipat, India, is progressing well, according to a company source. Operations at the new 857,000 tonnes/year cracker have started. “Onspec propylene is in the storage tank and ethylene is expected in a day or two,” he said. Among the […]
Map Ta Phut pressure mounts
By Malini Hariharan PTT Chem is likely to miss its revenue growth target of 20% this year because of the Map Ta Phut crisis. The company had set a 2010 revenue target of about Baht100bn (US$3bn), up from Baht80bn in 2009, reports the Bangkok Post. As reported by this blog last month, suspension of parent […]
India growth story – Part 3
By Malini Hariharan Some numbers today on Indian polyolefin and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) demand growth during April-December 2009. The strong growth trend noticed in the early part of last year continued and belied earlier expectations of a slowdown because of a drought over parts of India. PVC and polypropylene (PP) recorded the fastest growth rates […]
The Indian growth story – part 2
By Malini Hariharan A few weeks back I had written about robust demand growth figures emerging from the Indian polymer market. I will be posting some numbers over the next few days but ahead of that I would like to highlight what industry players have been saying on the major growth drivers and also developments […]
Map Ta Phut impasse continues
By Malini Hariharan There is no light yet for companies whose projects have been suspended at Map Ta Phut. Last Friday, Thailand’s Central Administrative Court rejected 30 petitions submitted by companies looking to resume work as their projects had received environmental clearance and would not create pollution. “The outlook is not promising,” says a Bangkok-based […]
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