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Asian Chemical Connections

Qatar-Shell Sing Deal Feedstock, Investment Options

Singapore’s Jurong Island Source of picture: www.pcs.com   Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) sees Singapore as a good base for expanding in to the Far East, said CEO Nasser Al-Jaidah yesterday after the announcement of the new partnership with Shell. QPI and Shell signed a series of agreements on Wednesday to jointly own 50% of Petrochemical Corporation of […]

Qatar Petroleum buys into Singapore petchems

Just picked up on the interesting news (not sure how big a deal this is) after attending one of those long interminably-long internal planning meetings. But on this occasion we at least were discussing something useful – not just the new colour for the carpet in reception. So why has Qatar Petroluem bought into Petrochemical […]

To Cut Rates Or Not To Cut…

A Famous Ditherer Source of picture: sarafinewordpress.com   Chasing higher oil prices and/or a response to the now long-running recovery in Chinese demand that’s become sustainable? Not wanting to sound too much like the start of a famous Shakespeare soliloquy, these are the questions that should be wracking everyone’s brains as they try to figure […]

China and M-E Delays To Offer More Market Support

  As this updated table from my colleagues at CBI in China illustrates, cracker-complex delays in China have the potential to further stagger the arrival of new volumes into the market. Chinanewcapacitytable.doc This follows the widespread problems in starting up new capacity in the Middle East. The 800,000 tonne/year Fujian Petrochemical/ExxonMobil/Saudi Aramco cracker is on-stream, […]

China’s chemical imports up – again!

By John Richardson We don’t have the actual data yet (hopefully, we’ll be able to give you the numbers later this week), but…… ……China’s commodity chemicals and polymer imports “continued to amaze” in September with monoethylene glycol (MEG) shipments hitting an all-time high, said Jean Sudol, president of US-based International Trader Publications Inc (ITP). “Imports […]

All’s well in South Korea – for now

By Malini Hariharan (Malini is now joint blogger for Asian Chemical Connections) South Korean petchem majors are expected to post another quarter of bumper earnings thanks to high operating rates and strong sales volumes. A Seoul-based equity research analyst think this year could well turn out to be a bonus. He expects the fourth quarter […]

Chemical execs go long on realism

Offsetting the risk of being over-optimistic? Source of picture: thetradingpit.net     MAYBE there should futures contracts in realism versus recklessness. That way any senior company executive who wants to take a punt on next year being better than 2009 can offset the risk by going “realistic” on the futures markets – and, of course, vice […]

Thai project delays good news for markets, but…..

….what do these environmental issues mean for Thailand as an investment destination?     The Map Ta Phut refinery-petrochemicals complex Source of picture: Pattaya News       By Malini Hariharan (Malini is now joint blogger for Asian Chemical Connections) Here’s yet another unexpected project delay that could prop up markets in the fourth quarter. […]

China’s consumption growth challenge

“China, please please do what we did and spend what you might not be able to afford…” Source of picture: The Daily Maily Whether or not China’s pace of economic recovery will be maintained would have become an intensely boring topic of discussion if it wasn’t so important for all our livelihoods. More data specific […]

Dalian Swings In Favour Of The Buyers

Polyolefin producers doing RMB business in China were delighted when price increases on the Dalian Commodity Exchange linear-low density polyethylene (LLDPE) futures contract started leading the physical market on the way up. “We used the exchange to justify charging higher prices for real deals because in the heady days of February-early August the general trend […]

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