By Malini Hariharan A few months back the blog had expressed sceptism on a Chinese company’s plans for a methanol-to-olefins (MTO) project based on imported methanol. The economics of such projects appear doubtful but many Chinese companies are looking to go down the same road. In its annual review on China’s coal chemical industry, Consultancy […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Saudi Oil And Gas Supply – Anyone’s Guess
By John Richardson SAUDI Arabia’s crude-oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 40% or 300bn barrels, according to this article on February 8 in the Guardian, based on cables between Saudi and US diplomats obtained by Wikileaks. The blog the Oil Drum used the occasion of the article to […]
Accident spurs US ethylene; Asia holds steady
By Malini Hariharan Spot ethylene prices in the US have moved up following a fire at Enterprise Products natural gas liquids (NGL) complex at Mont Belvieu, Texas, on 8th February. The complex is said to be among the world’s largest underground storage centres for NGLs. Pic source: ICIS Spot ethylene offers rose to 49cents/lb, up […]
The China Intellectual Property Right Dilemma
By John Richardson INTELLECTUAL property right protection has long been a nightmare in China thanks to the ability of government research institutions to rapidly and very effectively copy technologies. Blueprints for these technologies have to be handed over to local authorities by foreign joint-venture partners. The constant challenge is balancing this risk against the enormous […]
What an excellent boss
By John Richardson VERY occasionally the blog deviates from its close coverage of petrochemical markets to focus on broader business issues. Today is one such occasion after a discussion with a manager of a major Asian chemicals trading operation. The manager is convinced that the good times are behind us, to refer back to the […]
Intuitively The Problems Are Building
By John Richardson THE signs are ominous as they have been since the beginning of the crisis. Intuitively, it still feels as if we are heading for some major macroeconomic problems. As Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, put it last week: “Overall, the world continues to recover to pre-recession levels. However, with inflation concerns […]
Polyolefin numbers – Part 2
By Malini Hariharan Its not just China and India that have posted healthy demand numbers for last year. Vietnam maintained double-digit growth in polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) last year, driven mainly by the local food packaging sector, reports ICIS pricing editor Bee Lin. PE consumption increased 27% to 800,000 tonnes while PP demand was […]
Saudi Ethane Prices Set To Rise To $2/mBTU
Source of picture: robertsamsterdam By John Richardson IT will only be a question of making a large rather than a huge amount of money if you only take into account the relatively minor increases being forecast for Saudi Arabia’s petrochemical feedstock costs. The cost rises would have been far more dramatic if Saudi […]
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