Marc Faber Source of picture: http://www.cliffkule.com/2011_06_26_archive.html By John Richardson RECENT action by Western central banks will result in more hot money flowing into Asia, creating further asset-price bubbles. Last week, the Fed launched QE3 and the previous week, the European Central Bank launched its bond-buying programme. Equity markets in China could also surge by 10-20 […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Saudi Worries About China Netbacks
By John Richardson Here is the first of a three blog posts on what is happening in China’s polyolefins markets. Today, we look at the Middle East and tomorrow and Thursday we present the perspective of traders and Western-headquartered polyolefin producers. The series is in response to what we believe is a turning […]
Polyolefins And China Real Estate
By John Richardson SOME polyolefin companies continue to present an optimistic picture of markets to investors. They point to positive factors such as renewed economic stimulus in China and a recovery in auto production in Thailand following last year’s floods. But, as we said yesterday, those involved in the day-to-day grind of trying to […]
PX Goes Green
By Malini Hariharan Work on commercialising a green route to paraxylene (PX) purified terphthalic acid (PTA) and other aromatics is speeding up. US companies are at the forefront of recent developments. Virent is looking to produce a sugar-based aromatics stream containing benzene, toluene and xylenes using traditional chemical catalytic processing, writes fellow blogger Doris de […]
It’s All About Shale Gas
By Malini Hariharan As expected, excitement around shale gas is running strong at the CERAWeek conference in Houston. But an element of caution is also visible with the majors appearing to be in no rush to finalise their investments. Shell is still a few years away from taking a final investment decision on a proposed […]
India Chems Look For Govt Support
By Malini Hariharan The Indian government is being asked to give a fresh boost to the chemicals industry in the 12th Five Year Plan beginning from 1 April. A working group for the chemicals industry has detailed key measures that the government must take to ensure growth of 12% during the plan period (2012-2017). Top […]
Formosa Confirms US Cracker Plans
By Malini Hariharan One more US cracker and propane dehydrogenation (PDH) project has been confirmed. After months of speculation Formosa Plastics has announced that plans to build a 800,000 tonnes/year ethane cracker, a 600,000 tonnes/year PDH plant and a 300,000 tonnes/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant at Point Comfort, Texas. The $1.7bn investment is due […]
SABIC And Sinopec’s Trinidad Partnership
By Malini Hariharan More news has emerged on the Trinidad methanol and methanol-to-olefins (MTO) project covered by the blog last week. Chinese major Sinopec is likely to be SABIC’s partner for the $5.3bn project. The two companies are in negotiations with the Trinidad government, said SABIC. With Sinopec as a partner, SABIC would gain access […]
Honam’s next expansion
By Malini Hariharan Honam Petrochemical’s plans for Indonesia appear to be progressing. Company sources told ICIS news yesterday that a feasibility study is underway for a $4-5bn petrochemical complex in Southeast Asia with Indonesia the most likely location. The study is likely to be completed by early 2013. Meanwhile, Indonesia media quoted senior managing director […]
Methanol moves
By Malini Hariharan Recent moves by methanol majors to boost their capacities have caught the blog’s attention. Sabic’s chief financial officer Mutlaq al-Morished disclosed at a press conference yesterday in Dubai that the company is in talks for a methanol project in Trinidad and Tobago. Morished declined to provide details as the talks were being […]
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