US PE contract pricesBy John Richardson THE American Chemistry Council’s Mid-Year Situation and Outlook Report, which was released this week, helps explain the background to the weakness in demand seen in the US polyethylene (PE) market. What goes for PE will, of course, apply to the rest of the US petrochemicals business. In the case […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China Jan-May PE Demand Declines
By John Richardson THE chart above, from data provided by Global Trade Information Services, further confirms that all hope of any substantial growth in China’s commodity grade polyethylene (PE) market during 2012 needs to be given up. Companies, and chemicals investors, should further revise their expectations. The five percent decline in apparent demand growth (imports plus […]
Northeast Asia PE Weakest Margins
Source: ICIS pricing Weekly Asian PE Margin Report By John Richardson The slide above shows how Northeast Asian naphtha-based polyethylene (PE) producers are struggling as a result of the weak China market (dark blue bars). And it confirms what we were discussing yesterday: The US, with its ethane advantage and with reportedly high […]
US Polyethylene Targets China
By John Richardson SIGNIFICANT volumes of US polyethylene (PE) are heading to China as the States attempts to compensate for weaker domestic sales, understands the blog. Despite the fall in US prices, margins remain strong, creating arbitrage opportunities. US May contracts for polyethylene (PE) settled down by 7 cents/lb ($154/tonne, €125/tonne) from April, following […]
US-China Trade Disputes Threat
By John Richardson CHINA’S 15.3 percent increase in exports in May, far greater than most analysts had expected, is being interpreted as a sign of the country’s enduring economic strength. This is certainly good news for China amidst all the other negative news. But to what extent is it good news for the US, the […]
China PE Demand Falls Six Percent
By John Richardson The 6% decline in apparent polyethylene (PE) demand in China from January to April this year, compared with the same periods in 2011 and 2010, underlines what market participants have been telling the blog for many months. The above chart also further emphasises how, in a weak market, the Middle East is […]
Feedstock Assumptions A Risk
By John Richardson THE feedstock landscape can change very rapidly as the shale-gas revolution amply demonstrates. But the assumption, right now, is that the landscape will not undergo any further radical changes. As a result, as much as 7.65m tonne/year could be added to US ethylene capacity by 2017. That would represent a 29 percent […]
APIC: US Feedstock and Asia Optimism
By John Richardson FEEDSTOCK advantages in the US and the continued economic rise of Asia were some of the themes of last week’s Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Steam crackers are being planned in abundance in the US. As much as 7.65m tonne/year of new ethane-based ethylene capacity could be on-stream […]
Butadiene Oversupply Threat
By John Richardson THERE is a lot of talk at the moment about on-purpose butadiene, via the butane dehydrogenation process, because of the recent extreme market tightness . The tightness is the result of a shift to lighter cracker feedstocks and reduced operating rates at naphtha crackers in Europe. Future feedstock patterns are also not […]
The China Shale Gas Risk
By John Richardson FIVE years ago everybody had written-off the US petrochemicals industry, but now the industry is incredibly gung-ho, thanks to shale gas – even if the issue of demand is somewhat more problematic. In five years time, might the world once again look a very different place as a result of shale gas […]
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