By John Richardson A LOT of the discussions taking place in and around last week’s American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers International Petrochemical Conference (IPC) in San Antonio, Texas, was, of course, around oil prices. Lower crude prices means less of a production cost advantage for the US petrochemicals industry, which is predominantly based on natural […]
Asian Chemical Connections
US Petchem Feedstock Costs: Not All Gloom for Asia
YESTERDAY we examined some of the factors shaping long-term outlook for polyethylene (PE) exports to China. And, today, as promised, we go into detail on another part of the story: Influences on future feedstock-cost position of US producers. What follows only scratches the surface. There are many more complexities that we shall examine in future […]
Crude Oil Price Risks Escalate
By John Richardson FINANCIAL speculators began to play an increasing role in crude-oil markets following liberalisation of financial trading rules, signed into law by Bill Clinton in 2000, as we argued in chapter 3 of our e-book, Boom Gloom & The New Normal. The disconnect between real supply and demand for crude and the influence […]
LyondellBasell Plans US Capacity Additions
Jim Gallogly Source of picture: ICIS By John Richardson LYONDELLBASELL has joined the list of US producers that have disclosed ethylene expansion plans as a result of low-cost ethane and the belief that we are heading towards an up-cycle. Jim Gallogly, LyondellBasell’s CEO, said during an earnings call on Monday that debottleneckings are […]
US Shale Gas: The Truth Versus Perception
Source of picture: alfin2100blogspot.com By John Richardson SINCE when has the truth mattered in the battle between environmentalists and the oil, gas and chemicals industries? This is a game of perception on both sides as estimates of risk are heavily subject to data that is either biased in the way it is collected or […]
Lasting Damage To US Chemicals
By John Richardson The huge and long-lasting impact of the economic crisis on the US chemicals industry is detailed in the excellent Year-End Situation and Outlook report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC), which was released late last week. Light vehicle sales and housing starts will still be below 2006 levels in 2015 – the […]
Petrochemicals Supercycle On The Way – Morgan Stanley
Watch out for the charging bulls… Source of picture: sbynewsblogspot.com By John Richardson A FEW senior industry executives told the blog as long as a year ago that a petrochemicals supercycle was on the way as a result of lack of new supply post-2011 and booming emerging markets demand growth. The babble of […]
US Polyolefins Confront Tough H2
Source of picture: www.usaembassy.com By John Richardson THE US poyolefins industry has enjoyed a remarkable recovery since the depths of the financial crisis thanks to major feedstock advantages in polyethylene (PE) and the rebound in the domestic economy. Booming demand from China also attracted substantial imports of PE and polypropylene (PP) from the […]
Update 2: Reliance Betting On US Competitiveness
He’s not bad at making money Source of picture: www.dealbreaker.com SOME of the logic behind Reliance Industries’ bid for LyondellBasell could be a recognition that the globalisation of petrochemicals markets may have gone into partial reverse. A climate bill passed by the House of Representatives has a provision for taxing imports from countries where emissions […]
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