By John Richardson DOW Chemical and DuPont are companies with tremendous histories. It is no exaggeration to say that they have helped to build the American economy, right from the early days of Henry Herbert Dow and Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. Their innovations have not only created wealth for America, their employees and their shareholders […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China: How Conventional Wisdom Becomes Conventional Wisdom
By John Richardson HOW does conventional wisdom – i.e. the opinion of the majority – become conventional wisdom? This is a subject that the blog pondered over the last few days as it wandered around Euro Disney. Unfortunately, Mickey, Donald and his pals weren’t able to give us an answer. The reason why we dwelled […]
China’s About Turn: The Seven Global Implications
By John Richardson HISTORIANS will end up concluding that falling emerging market currencies and stock markets – the prelude to what could be a full-blown crisis – is really about China and not about the US Federal Reserve. The Fed is just a sideshow to the main event of what is going to drive not […]
The US Shale Gas Boom Will End
Don’t follow the herd… By John Richardson ISN’T it amazing how we keep getting caught out by the unexpected, from the global financial crisis to China is entering a period of much-lower growth? No, not really. As long as we keep being driven by the short attention-span of financial markets and the demands of quarterly […]
M&A Predictions For 2012
By Malini Hariharan After a record year of M&A activity will uncertainty about the global economy and weakness in many chemical markets dampen the appetite for new deals? Nearly $82bn of deals were completed last year, more than double the dollar volume in 2010, said Peter Young, president and managing director of Young & Partners, […]
Middle East looks overseas for growth
By Malini Hariharan The US shale gas buzz is now drawing Middle East companies with Sabic’s CEO revealing yesterday that the company is considering investing in a US cracker. Sabic would pursue the US cracker on its own or with a partner, reports ICIS news. A shortage of ethane in Saudi Arabia means Sabic has […]
PTT Global’s latest buy and Siam Cement’s Indonesia plan
By Malini Hariharan There have been no headline-grabbing deals but bit by bit PTT Global Chemical is extending its business beyond Asia and entering new product areas. Yesterday, PTT Global announced plans for a joint venture with Perstorp Holding France in toluene diisocyanate (TDI), aliphatic isocynates such as hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and derivatives. PTT Global […]
Siam Cement set for next Indonesian buy
By Malini Hariharan After picking up a 30% stake in Chandra Asri, the Siam Cement Group (SCG) is looking to seal its next Indonesian buy. Two companies, SCG and Japan’s Itochu Corp, are reported to have advanced to the second round of bidding for chlor-alkali and vinyls producer Sulfindo Adisuha. The deal is expected to […]
Siam Cement eyes big Indonesian buy
By Malini Hariharan Confirmation has come in from the Siam Cement Group (SCG) that it is in the race to acquire stakes in two Indonesian companies – Chandra Asri and Sulfindo Adiusaha. “We are interested in both firms in Indonesia as petrochemicals are SCG’s core business. But we cannot disclose anything at the moment because […]
Chandra Asri stake up for sale?
By Malini Hariharan Indonesia’s sole cracker operator Chandra Asri faces yet another ownership change with Singapore’s Temasek Holding reported to be looking at divesting its stake in the company. The news report in the Wall Street Journal said several companies from Thailand, South Korea and Japan have shown interest in Temasek’s stake, including Thailand’s PTT […]
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