By Malini Hariharan The fight for the metallocene market is heating up with South Korean producers increasingly looking at getting a share of this attractive market. SK Corp confirmed plans to build a new metallocene linear-low density polyethylene (MLLDPE) plant outside Asia once a new plant in South Korea starts operations, writes the blog’s colleague […]
Asian Chemical Connections
A dose of caution
By Malini Hariharan Predictions about a steady recovery in petrochemical margins from financial analysts have multiplied in recent weeks and producers too have turned bullish with many expecting to sail through 2011 without any major difficulties. But in the midst of this optimism a few cautionary voices can still be heard. Analysts at South Korea-based […]
South Korea To Raise C2 Capacity By 9.2 Percent
By John Richardson SOUTH Korea is set to raise its ethylene and propylene capacities by 700,000 tonne/year and 740,000 tonne/year by 2013, Seo Kyung Sun, executive director of the consulting business of Seoul-based Chemical Market Research Inc (CMRI) told the blog last week. Downstream expansions in polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) […]
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 […]
SK moving to China?
South Korean producers have for long been dependent on the Chinese market to absorb a large percentage of their output. So it is perhaps not surprising to read that SK Energy plans to move the headquarters of its chemicals division to China. It is also said to be looking at hiving off the chemicals business […]
China and M-E Delays To Offer More Market Support
As this updated table from my colleagues at CBI in China illustrates, cracker-complex delays in China have the potential to further stagger the arrival of new volumes into the market. Chinanewcapacitytable.doc This follows the widespread problems in starting up new capacity in the Middle East. The 800,000 tonne/year Fujian Petrochemical/ExxonMobil/Saudi Aramco cracker is on-stream, […]
All’s well in South Korea – for now
By Malini Hariharan (Malini is now joint blogger for Asian Chemical Connections) South Korean petchem majors are expected to post another quarter of bumper earnings thanks to high operating rates and strong sales volumes. A Seoul-based equity research analyst think this year could well turn out to be a bonus. He expects the fourth quarter […]
Jump to page: