By Malini Hariharan I have been doing my annual exercise of compiling major petrochemicals projects in India and as usual there not too many. Making a case for investing in a cracker in India has never been easy and the task continues to be difficult despite the demand growth experienced in the last few years. […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Thailand’s Map Ta Phut crisis – the NGO side of the story
By Malini Hariharan Penchom Saetang of Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand (Earth) is not a typical activist vociferously denouncing companies for their environmental misdeeds. She is soft spoken and rational in her criticism of the state of affairs at Map Ta Phut, Thailand’s premier industrial zone and a major petrochemicals hub. After spending over […]
No option but to bet on China
By Malini Hariharan Even as market players celebrate the finish of what has been an unexpectedly good year there are not many who expect a repeat performance. A key concern is Chinese demand which saved the industry in 2009. A massive government stimulus package boosted domestic consumption and imports of a wide range of petrochemicals. […]
Map Ta Phut work stops but no clarity on when crisis will be resolved.
By Malini Hariharan Companies executing projects at Map Ta Phut in Thailand have finally received a notice from the government to stop construction work. The notice comes after the Thai Supreme court’s ruling in early December to suspend 65 projects on environmental concerns. Mitsubishi Rayon has confirmed it has stopped work at its 90,000 tonnes/year […]
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 […]