By John Richardson WHEN is apparent bad news actually good news? In the case of the US, where a serious shortage of manpower might result in at least the delay in some petrochemicals projects and perhaps, even, hopefully, some cancellations. “For years there has been minimal construction activity in the US and so most workers […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Australia and The US: History Could Repeat Itself
By John Richardson A PERTH-based businessman who made a very basic piece equipment for the Australian mining industry (details disguised for confidentiality reasons) incurred total production costs of just Aus$6 for each item he produced as a against a sale price of Aus$60 a time. Yes, this is not printing mistake – Aus$60! Quite […]
Only 4-6 US Cracker Projects Will Happen
By John Richardson ONLY 4-6 of all the above US cracker projects are likely to go ahead as realisation dawns that both demand and feedstock advantage might not be as strong as previously thought, an industry source told the blog. “First of all, companies need to factor into demand and supply forecasts the possibility that […]
Europe’s Rubbish Solution
By John Richardson SHALE gas may never be a significant energy solution for Europe because the political challenges are just too great, as this article in the Financial Times points out.For example, the FT writes that: Fracking is banned in France and the Netherlands. The Dutch government scrapped a parliamentary proposal to allow fracking […]
Asia’s Naphtha Crackers
By John Richardson ONE industry observer describes some of the cracker and refinery-petrochemicals projects in Southeast Asia (SEA) as “national projects”. In other words, their justification is not entirely on economics, but also about nation building and reducing import dependency. And so, as we discussed yesterday, perhaps some of these projects will be shelved when […]
It Is Just Too Difficult
Smart bottles By John Richardson THERE is a growing concern amongst some polyolefin industry executives that, despite the economic problems first in China and now India, there is still a great deal of enthusiasm for adding new capacity, as we discuss in this ICIS Insight article. “Now that China has weakened, everybody has switched […]
The Complexities Of Benzene
By John Richardson SOMETIMES petrochemicals markets defy reality, on the occasions when pricing moves out-of-synchronicity with the underlying nature of demand. This is the case with benzene today (see the above pricing chart) as my ICIS colleague Truong Mellor describes, in this excellent Insight article. He says that: *European Benzene pricing has been bullish, as […]
Demographics And Shale Gas
By John Richardson GLOBAL shale resources are large enough to cover more than a decade of oil consumption, writes the FT in this article, quoting the US Department of Energy. And as my colleague Nigel Davis writes in this, as usual, excellent Insight article, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has upwardly revised its estimate of worldwide recoverable […]
Northeast Asia Confronts PVC Consolidation
By John Richardson ASIAN higher cost polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producers are facing the twin squeeze of increased electricity costs and very competitive exports from the US, according to an industry source the blog met with in Taipei, ahead of tomorrow and Friday’s 2013 Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC). Such is the pressure on the Japanese, […]
China PE Demand In 2013: Flat Or Declining
By John Richardson SENTIMENT continues to severely undermine polyethylene (PE) demand in China as converters, lacking confidence in a big new economic stimulus programme later this year, keep their raw-material purchases to an absolute minimum. “It used to be the case that our customers bought four containers at a time. Now it’s down to two,” said […]
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