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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