By Malini Hariharan The margin pain experienced in Asia in the last quarter is clearly evident in the recently released results by South Korean majors Honam Petrochemical and LG Chem. Honam’s operating profit for Q2 declined 36.8% from the previous quarter to Won36.1bn. LG Chem’s operating profit was down 7.2% at Won775.4bn while its petrochemical […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Dow To Sell PP to Braskem
DOW Chemical is to sell its polypropylene (PP) business to Brazil’s Braskem for $340m, according to our colleagues at ICIS news. The blog is digging around for the implications for Dow in Asia. For the time being, however, here are some initial thoughts…. Included in the sales are two plants in the US and two […]
China Auto Market Provides Clear Evidence
By John Richardson DESTOCKING is obviously not the main driver of the decline in China’s polyolefins market, despite what a dwindling band of optimists are still arguing. The glaringly transparent reason for the fallacy of the fading belief is a decline in key end-use markets for polyoleifins – and for other polymers and chemicals. Today […]
No escaping the squeeze
By Malini Hariharan With naphtha crossing $1000/tonne yesterday Asian petrochemical producers reliant on this feedstock remain caught in a tight spot. Costs are continuously rising while market direction for key derivatives is uncertain. Ethylene and propylene prices are holding firm at around $1,350/tonne CFR Northeast Asia and $1,500/tonne CFR Northeast Asia respectively, supported by a […]
Looking West for support
By Malini Hariharan As Asian markets head towards a quiet week, producers are probably hoping that developments in other regions will support their efforts to raise prices once trading resumes after the Chinese New Year holidays in the first week of February. European producers successfully raised February ethylene contract price by Euro25/tonne while propylene moved […]
Petronas mulls cracker at Kerteh
By Malini Hariharan There is finally some movement at Petronas. After last month’s joint announcement with BASF on a study for a Euro1bn investment in speciality chemicals, news has emerged that the Malaysian major is also exploring the feasibility of a new petrochemical complex at Kerteh. The complex would have a 1m tonnes/year ethane cracker […]
Letting supply lead the way
By Malini Hariharan Conventional wisdom suggests that it is best to build a plant where the market is. But can ready availability of material develop markets. Take the case of India. In an interesting presentation at India Chem last week, Mathew George of Indian Oil Corp (IOC), pointed that each of the top five polymer […]
China MTO/MTP – one more project starts
By Malini Hariharan Shenhua Ningxia has finally produced onspec propylene at its new 470,000 tonnes/year methanol-to-propylene (MTP) plant after starting trial operations last month. This marks the successful start of China’s first MTP project, which is also the world’s largest. There is one more due by the end of the year -Datang Power’s 450,000 tonnes/year […]
India contributes to Asian growth story
By Malini Hariharan Yes, the Indian economy is growing and propping up demand for all polymers. The blog had highlighted a few weeks back that polypropylene (PP) demand expanded by 13% during the April-July period and the expectations are that this rate will be maintained for the full year ending 31 March 2011. Raffia, the […]
PO demand slows, will prices slide?
By Malini Hariharan After a fairly steady climb Asian polyolefin markets have hit the pause button. Demand for polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) in China and Southeast Asia has weakened but this development has so far been balanced out by continuous reports of operating issues across Asia and the Middle East. The latest is Yansab’s […]
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