By John Richardson SHELL Chemicals announcement that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a cracker and derivatives project in Qatar seems to have upped the ante in what could be a struggle for only one parcel of feedstock. Graeme Burnett, Total Petrochemical’s senior vice president for Asia and the Middle East, in […]
Asian Chemical Connections
A subdued end to a good year
By Malini Hariharan Petrochemical markets, with a few exceptions, will be closing the year on a quiet note. In polyolefins, buying activity in China has slowed down and sentiment remains weak weighed down by the Chinese government’s decision to hike bank reserve requirements. This is despite the recent rally in crude oil prices. Prices of […]
China Polyolefins Divorced From Fundamentals
A permanent separation? Source of picture: edu.com By John Richardson IT IS pretty easy to predict specific events that will cause declines in polyolefins pricing in China next year thanks to the big role that macro-economics now plays in setting the market. No longer do you need to mainly sweat over increasingly difficult polyethylene […]
Asian Inflation And Vietnam Polyolefins
Guess who’s coming to Christmas dinner Source of picture: biology.ucf.edu By John Richardson THE widespread problem of surging inflation in Asia ex-Japan is a major threat to petrochemicals demand growth in 2011. Governments need to put the brakes on to prevent economies from overheating. But the problem is that raising interest rates could […]
Why bother?
By Malini Hariharan After reading news reports about fresh protests against Kuokuang Petrochemical’s proposed refinery and cracker complex in Taiwan the blog is wondering whether the company should be spending time and money in pursuing this ill-fated project. Kuokuang, a joint venture between state-owned CPC Corp and several Taiwanese private companies, has been unable to […]
Paraxylene ACP is controversial but necessary
By Malini Hariharan Paraxylene (PX) is one of the few petrochemicals to have a contract price recognized all over Asia. However, the Asian contract price (ACP) mechanism which has been in use for over ten years continues to court controversy. The ACP, a monthly settlement that is negotiated by a handful of large producers and […]
China’s latest craze – methanol-to-olefins
By Malini Hariharan A methanol-to-olefins (MTO) wave is gripping China and projects are set to multiply even as questions persist on their economic viability. Popularity of this technology has grown since the successful commissioning of Shenhua Baotou’s plant earlier this year and many mid-sized Chinese chemical companies have queued up to implement projects. Pic source: […]
OPEC, China Inflation And Petchems
By John Richardson OPEC’s decision to maintain crude quotas at current levels could give the banks further ammunition to manipulate opinion that the black stuff is genuinely in tight supply. There is plenty of evidence that oil is, in fact, still pretty long – and that this bull-run is yet again about speculators talking up […]
Petchems And Tomorow’s OPEC Meeting
By John Richardson THE next OPEC meeting – which takes place in Ecuador this Saturday (11 December) – is crucial for petrochemicals for two reasons. Firstly, the crude market has turned bullish recently as a result of the early onset of winter in Europe and the growing belief that the oil-supply cushion is being reduced. […]
Chinese MEG Demand Up By 2m tonnes This Year
By Malini Hariharan Global monoethylene glycol (MEG) markets are likely to remain robust in 2011, supported by strong demand from China and a lack of new capacity additions, a top executive from MEGlobal told the blog at the 5th Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) forum being held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). […]
Jump to page: