By Malini Hariharan Qatar has reconfirmed its commitment to build more petrochemical plants including a new worldscale cracker. At a ceremony to mark the start of construction of Qapco’s new ldPE project, the deputy premier and minister of energy and industry said Qatar was launching an aggressive plan to achieve optimal utilization of the country’s […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Update 1: Reliance said to be offering $10-12bn
Reliance Industries – which is attempting to buy LyondellBasell – is offering $10-12bn, according to this report from Reuters quoting two sources with direct knowledge of the deal. This would be one of the biggest-ever acquisitions by an Indian company. In 2007, Tata Steel bought Corus for $13bn. Reliance raised $660m through a share sale in September. […]
Reliance Bid For LyondellBasell Confirmed
Reliance Industries has made an offer for LyondellBasell says an official statement released yesterday on the LyondellBasell website: “LyondellBasell has received a preliminary non-binding offer from Reliance Industries Limited to acquire for cash a controlling interest in the company contemporaneously with the company’s emergence from Chapter 11 reorganization. “This offer is in addition to the […]
Unravelling China’s polyester market
By Malini Hariharan (Malini is now joint blogger for Asian Chemical Connections) China’s immense appetite this year for all petrochemicals has been puzzling many of us. This blog has been regularly asking questions and some answeres for the polyester and PTA markets were provided by YJ Kim of PCI Xylenes & Polyesters at the Indian […]
US Dollar Carry Trade Threat To Chemicals
Stay cool and don’t panic! Source of picture: www.wired.com By John Richardson THE growth of the carry trade US dollars – leading to a sharp depreciation of the greenback and possibly of many other unintended consequences – represents a major threat to the chemicals industry in 2010. Any corporate planner with her or […]
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 […]
Should Indonesia Add Capacity?
Source of picture: wartakota.co.id WESTERNERS can often by unbelievably patronising about Asia’s efforts to climb up the economic self-sufficiency ladder. “South Korea has no business being in petrochemicals,” said a very annoying US industry executive many years ago – one of those situations where your correspondent wanted to punch someone’s lights […]
Wearing blinkers is a job requirement
“Take it from me, peripheral vision isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially if you want to get a decent annual bonus….” Source of picture: www.whipnspurs.co.nz Here’s a rant for Tuesday – with thanks to Paul Hodges for informing some of the thinking (I’d like to lay credit to certain parts of this…) Purchasing […]
How do Asian cracker operators compete?
Source of Picture: www.autospies.com Not an easy answer and not one much suited to a few paragraphs of blogging. But here’s one thought as the competitive environment becomes a great deal more difficult due to new Middle East capacity and the potential for China to move towards self-sufficiency in polyethylene and polypropylene: Have a chat […]
Excessive Confidence A Risk
Confidence along all the chemicals value chains is always a key issue because of the ability to aggressively manage inventories, according to the London-based chemicals analyst Paul Satchell. So there’s the ever-present risk of sudden and very disruptive de-stocking. The longer the current rallies in commodity prices and stock markets continue, the greater might be […]
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