Looking pretty – the new Shell plant at night: Sourceof picture: Shell Chemicals By John Richardson WHEN Shell Chemicals officially opened its OMEGA process 750,000 tonne/year monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant in Singapore today, it mentioned how its global production share of the fibre intermediate was only 7%. One might wonder how effective this is […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Thai Start-ups: What A Muddle
A real head scratcher…… Source of picture: www/http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com By John Richardson Confused? Sorry, but so far we cannot be of much help bringing any precision to what the implications of Thailand’s Supreme Court ruling will mean for the timing of petrochemical start-ups. If you remember, last Friday we wrote about how the Supreme Court […]
Thai Start-up Delays On Court Ruling: The Details
The Thai Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a September injunction halting development of $12bn of petrochemical and power projects could affect the on-schedule start-up of capacities of a large amount of petrochemicals capacity. Note the word could because, despite the court ruling supporting claims by environmentalists about the impact of pollution at the site, PTT […]
“Middle East To Control Basic Chems In 3-5 Years”
Abu Dhabi ahead in the race? Source of picture: www.gulftrackservices.com By John Richardson The global basic chemicals industry is likely to end up under the dominant control of the Middle East, and possibly Asia, within the next 3-5 years, a senior chemicals industry source told this blog. “We have known for a long time that […]
China Export Gains Raise Sustainability Fears
Source of picture: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23512037/ CHINA is making export gains at the expense of other higher-cost competitors that might not be sustainable because of reasons including rising trade protectionism and economic rebalancing. Chemical companies need to factor in this risk – and take into account how overall demand might merely be shifting location […]
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 […]
GCC mood lifts despite worsening gas crisis
THE MOOD seems to have become a little more upbeat in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region of the Middle East thanks to the economic recovery. “The flow of foreign funds into the GCC came to a complete standstill in Q4 and the first quarter of this year, but in Q2-Q3 it reached all-time highs,” […]
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. […]
Maybe it’s not as bleak as I’ve made out…
Consensus opinion tends to swing firmly in one direction and then the other. For example, in the good old days of 2007 you would have been pretty hard-pressed to find many in the chemicals industry who saw anything but a mildly cyclical downturn. But the widely-held view now – that we are facing five years […]
It’s tough at the top…….
It’s easy to take pot shots at the boss, and everyone of course feels they have been underpromoted and could do the job better themselves. Andrew Liveris is just the latest in a long line of CEOs to experience both envy – and at the moment perhaps a little pleasure at their failures. The gloating […]
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