Asia top stories: weekly summary
ICIS Editorial
10-Oct-2016
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Here are some of the top stories from ICIS Asia and the Middle East for the week ended 7 October 2016.
Saudi Polymers starts 60-day turnaround at
Al-Jubail complex
Saudi Polymers Co has shut its Al-Jubail petrochemical
complex for a 60-day periodic maintenance, its parent firm –
Saudi Arabia’s National Petrochemical Co (Petrochem)
said.
Asia BD spike takes a breather amid week-long
China holiday
Asia’s spot butadiene (BD) prices are having a welcome
respite, after surging by more than 42% since early August,
amid the week-long holiday in China, market players
said.
SE Asia PP trades in small volumes; sellers refuse
to cut prices
Polypropylene (PP) sellers in the southeast (SE) Asian market
were reluctant to cut their prices further for Middle East
cargoes, citing small traded volumes during the week, market
sources said.
Asia BD upsurge may continue as traders place
strong bids for tender
Despite the absence of the major players this week, the
relentless upsurge in the butadiene (BD) prices is expected
to continue unabated as traders scrambled to secure an
October cargo that has been unexpectedly made available via a
sales tender, market sources said.
NE Asia ethylene market under pressure from ample
supply
Spot ethylene prices in northeast Asia may remain under
downward pressure despite the outage at Shell’s Singapore
cracker, given ample regional supply and expectations of
higher exports from the Middle East, market players
said.
Asia VAM may rebound on reduced supply, firmer
feedstock costs
Asia’s vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) spot prices may rebound
from record lows amid reduced supply and firmer costs of
feedstock acetic acid, market sources said.
India acetic acid at 11-month high as China export
prices spike
Spot import discussions for acetic acid in India surged to an
11-month high at near mid-$300/tonne levels, led by a spike
in the cost of procuring Chinese material amid reduced
supply, market sources said.
France’s Total to sell Atotech for $3.2bn to US’
Carlyle Group
Total has agreed to sell its specialty chemicals division
Atotech to US-based asset manager The Carlyle Group for
$3.2bn, the French oil and gas firm said on Friday.
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