By John Richardson THE blog continues to ponder the significance of the Petronas announcement that it is to go ahead with its $27bn refinery-petrochemicals project – the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) at Johor in Malaysia. “It means that Singapore faces a competitor with deep pockets. Time to assess the winners and losers on Singapore’s Jurong […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China Compensation
By John Richardson A MAJOR Southeast Asian polyethylene (PE) producer has reduced its percentage of exports to China from 30-40% in 2012 to just 10% so far this year, a source with the producer told the blog on the sidelines of the Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC) in Taipei. This is further confirmation of the […]
India PP dumping: The story continues
By Malini Hariharan The fight against anti-dumping duties (ADD) imposed by India on polypropylene (PP) exported by Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Oman is not yet over. Some of the major companies that face ADD have taken the matter to the Indian Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal and the issue is due to come […]
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, […]
A Happy Festive Season To All Our Readers
Source of picture: anahoyhanioblogspot.com By John Richardson THE blog will be taking a few days off this week as ’tis the season to be Merry’, regardless of what you may think is our rather cynical and often-times pessimistic view of the chemicals industry. We will come roaring back towards the end of this week by the […]
More LPG For Petrochemicals – Eventually!
By John Richardson In theory there should be an additional 20-30m tonne/year of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) coming on-stream between 2008-2012, according to Petrochemical Corp of Singapore (PCS) – the Singapore Jurong Island-based cracker operator. This could lead to 5-10m tonne/year more LPG being cracked if the pricing incentives are right, added PCS in a […]
Getting Education Right Is Crucial
The brightest and the best, but will there be enough of them? Source of picture: schoolsinnewdelhi.com By John Richardson EDUCATION, education and education are three of the biggest challenges facing developing countries over the next 10-20 years. This will determine overall growth of economies. Without the right skill sets the rapid rates of […]
Singapore’s aromatics binge
By Malini Hariharan Jurong Aromatics Corp (JAC), part of a rare breed of standalone aromatics projects, is finally seeing some progress. At a time when most new aromatic projects are integrated with refinery operations, JAC plans to build a condensate splitter and an aromatics facility to produce 800,000 tonnes/year of paraxylene (PX), 450,000 tonnes/year of […]
Indian PP producers benefit from strong growth
By Malini Hariharan Indian polypropylene (PP) demand continues to remain strong with most end-use sectors showing good growth and it is local producers who are catering to the additional requirement. Polypropylene (PP) demand is estimated to have expanded by 13% to 809,000 tonnes during April-July, reports my colleague Prema Viswanathan on ICIS news. But import […]
Qatar Petroleum in Algerian cracker jv
By Malini Hariharan Qatar Petroleum’s (QP) ambition to extend its global reach has taken the company to Algeria. QP is reported to have picked up a 10% stake in the Total-Sonatrach joint-venture petrochemicals project at Arzew, Algeria. The entry of QP would result in a dilution of Total’s stake in the project to 41% with […]
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