By Malini Hariharan More companies are reporting damages to facilities after last week’s earthquake and tsunami. Mitsubishi Chemical said in a statement that berths, roads and infrastructure around the plant area at its Kashima site have been damaged and delivery or shipment of cargo “would be next to impossible”. “Restoration of capabilities will take quite […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Japan Disaster – Lost Production Update
By Nigel Davis For some, life goes on. For others, everything is lost. An email to the BBC on Tuesday from a resident in Mie, Japan, 350 miles from the stricken nuclear power plants on the east coast of the country, described a relatively normal day. Utilities are available but people are feeling nervous and […]
Japan Disaster 4 – The Impact On Paraxylene
By John Richardson ASIAN paraxylene (PX) and styrene markets look set to be the most affected by the loss of Japanese exports as the slide below from Bob Townsend at the UK-based consultancy, International eChem (Iec) illustrates. Japanese Exports.ppt My fellow blogger Paul Hodges, also of IeC has analysed the data behind the charts to […]
Japan Disaster – Some petchem plants shut; markets stable
By Malini Hariharan News is slowly trickling in on the status of Japanese petrochemical plants. Only four of the country’s 14 crackers have shut down while a few are running at reduced rates, reports ICIS news. JX Nippon Oil & Energy has shut its 460,000 tonnes/year cracker at Kawasaki while Maruzen Petrochemical has shut its […]
Japan Disaster 2 – Refining, Petchems Update
By John Richardson OUR sympathies again go to the people of Japan. The main focus should be on providing as much support as possible to the rescue efforts and let’s hope that petrochemical companies globally step forward. But as we said yesterday, life goes on. The Japanese stock market was down around 5% this morning in early trading, […]
Japan Disaster: Immediate Petchem, Refining Impact
By John Richardson THE earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on Friday afternoon is still hard to take in. We send our sympathy to everyone connected with this disaster and just hope and pray that the rescue efforts go exceptionally well. As Japan returns to work this morning it will confront the huge cost of […]
Scenarios For China Refining & Petchem Output
By John Richardson IF exploration and production (E&P) is the dog and refining the tail on the dog, poor old petrochemicals is merely a flee on the tail of the dog, goes the old saying. Hence last November we reported on the strange case of how China’s drive to hit emissions targets under its 11th […]
China Remains Weak On Government Tightening
By John Richardson CHINA’S polyethylene (PE) market – a reasonable proxy we often use for the chemicals and polymer industries as a whole – remains worryingly weak, according to several traders and producers interviewed by the blog this week. Modest restocking did take place last week, leading to a very slight improvement in sentiment and […]
Opportunities Can Vanish Before You Know It
By John Richardson “Just when you think it is the right time to make an investment case to a board of directors, the particular opportunity you have been studying has an annoying habit of disappearing,” said a business development manager for a global polyolefins producer. His comments reflect the increasingly complex world in which we […]
The C4 challenge
By Malini Hariharan C4 buyers are a troubled lot. Availabilty of the product is tight and will remain so for the foreseeable future. So it was not surprising to hear that concerns about C4 supply dominated discussions at the recent 6th ICIS World Olefins Conference in Brussels. From a surplus in 2010, Europe is predicted […]