Asia top stories – weekly summary
ICIS Editorial
15-Apr-2019
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Here are the top stories from ICIS News Asia and the Middle East for the week ended 12 April 2019.
Explosion at PETRONAS’ Pengerang complex
injures two; fire extinguished
The fire at PETRONAS’ Pengerang Integrated
Complex (PIC) in southern Johor has been
extinguished with investigations still ongoing
on the cause and extent of the incident which
injured two security personnel at the site,
according to local police.
Iran’s C2 suppliers seek export outlets after
pipeline shutdown
Ethylene (C2) producers in flood-hit Iran are
seeking to export cargoes after domestic
downstream plants lowered operation due to
damages to a major ethylene pipeline, market
sources said on Wednesday.
China’s local PE import prices rise on tight
Iranian shipments
The effect from the outage at Iran’s West
Ethylene Pipeline is keenly felt in
polyethylene-deficit China, where domestic
prices are on an upward trajectory amidst
supply disruptions from the US-sanctioned
country.
INTERACTIVE: China drags down growth prospects
for rest of Asia
China’s economic growth is expected to slow
down further in the second quarter, before
potentially rebounding in the latter half of
the year, thus, remain a drag on Asia’s overall
growth pace, according to analysts.
India acetone market bearish pre-elections; US
ADD probe weighs
India’s acetone market outlook is subdued ahead
of the country’s general elections, and amid
abundant Asian supply due to ongoing US’
anti-dumping duty (ADD) investigation on
imports from five origins, including Singapore
and South Korea.
TiO2 market in China to remain buoyant on
upbeat demand
Sentiment in the titanium dioxide (TiO2) market
in China is expected to get support from
renewed buying interest in the domestic and
export fronts.
Asia naphtha backwardation shrinking as demand
ebbs
Asia naphtha’s market structure shrank in
backwardation as regional demand is easing
following disruptions at a downstream aromatics
facility in Taiwan following an explosion,
resulting in a lack of bullish expectations for
the coming days.
Asia ACN to resume upward momentum as tight
supply prevails
Asia’s acrylonitrile (ACN) prices may resume
their upward momentum after three weeks of
stability, as spot supply remained limited and
could tighten further due to upcoming plant
turnarounds.
Asia freight rates poised to soften on poor
sentiment
Freight rates on most Asian routes are poised
to soften in the near term due to poor
sentiment from charters and abundant tonnage
spaces available.
Asia benzene remains on uptrend on US arbitrage
play, plant outage
Asia benzene market will remain bullish as the
spot East-West arbitrage remains in play, and
amid supply concerns following the closure of
aromatics unit after an explosion at Formosa
Chemicals & Fibre Corporation (FCFC) plant
on 7 April in a gas pipeline.
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