Chemical News
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Rajoo gets in trim at PlastIndia 2012 Feb 15,2012
Indian blown film and sheet extrusion line manufacturer, Rajoo, reported strong interest in its products and services at the recent PlastIndia show. Towering over its stand was a 14.5m tall five-layer blown film line. According to the company, it was the only blown film line at the show running barrier films with trimless winding, a feature that...>>>
Japan's Idemitsu keeps SM runs at reduced 70-80% on poor export demand Feb 15,2012
Japan's Idemitsu Kosan is maintaining runs at its three styrene monomer plants at reduced rates of about 70-80% due to poor margins and low export demand, a company source said Tuesday. The company has a 210,000 mt/year plant at Chiba, and two plants at Tokuyama -- a 120,000 mt/year No. 1 unit and a 220,000 mt/year No. 2 unit. Runs were reduced ...>>>
US Foster Wheeler wins Saudi Aramco-Dow propylene oxide contract Feb 15,2012
US-based Foster Wheeler said it has secured the engineering, procurement and construction management contract for a propylene oxide project, which will be part of the Sadara petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia. The contract was awarded by Aramco Overseas Co., a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, and Dow Europe, it said. The value of the deal, whic...>>>
Braskem's PP, PE offers to Mercosur up $50/mt for February H2: source Feb 15,2012
Braskem's polyethylene and polypropylene offers to Mercosur (Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia) increased by $50/mt for the second half of February, a source said on Tuesday. "The price increase is just a readjustment in order to be in line with the international offers in the area," said the company source. After the hike, Brazil's polypropylen...>>>
Israel to draft security plan to protect vessels at floating LNG terminal Feb 15,2012
Israel's Defense Ministry and Israel Electric Corp will draw up a plan within two months to provide security for LNG vessels that will unload at a floating terminal being built off the country's Mediterranean coast, IEC and Defense Ministry sources said Tuesday. The offshore FLNG terminal, due to begin operations at the end of this year, will be...>>>
TransCanada predicts lower earnings for gas storage business in 2012 Feb 15,2012
TransCanada officials said Tuesday they expect the gas storage business to produce modestly lower earnings in 2012 than in 2011. The Calgary-based pipeline operator's natural gas storage comparable earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in fourth quarter 2011 were C$23 million compared with C$37 million ($37 mill...>>>
NWE ULSD returns to contango on overhang, high refinery run rates Feb 15,2012
The Northwest European ultra low sulfur diesel cargo market moved back into contango Monday as high refinery run rates and low demand left the prompt market oversupplied. The balance February 10 ppm CIF NWE cargo swap was assessed by Platts at a discount of $1.50/mt to the March swap, from a $0.50/mt premium on Friday, when the structure was lar...>>>
NYMEX crude settles 17 cents lower, RBOB pares gains in choppy trade Feb 15,2012
NYMEX March crude futures settled 17 cents lower at $100.74/barrel Tuesday, while RBOB futures pared gains seen a day earlier as concerns over high gasoline supply and weak demand in the US weighed on the commodity. March RBOB settled 3 cents lower at $2.9825/gal, a day after rallying on refinery outage news. "We are seeing a lot of pressure ...>>>
High inventory levels pressure import prices of Asian aromatics Feb 14,2012
Asian aromatics prices on a CFR China basis are facing downward pressure from rising inventory levels, Platts data showed Monday. CFR China toluene and styrene monomer prices are currently below FOB Korea prices. With styrene monomer, the spread between CFR China and FOB Korea prices flipped to negative on February 8, as cost pressures pushed th...>>>
Sibur and Gazprom sign long-term supply contract for petrochemical plants Feb 14,2012
Russian petrochemical manufacturer Sibur Holding and Russian gas giant Gazprom have signed a long-term contract to supply natural gas liquids (NGL) from the Surgut Condensate Stabilization Plant to the Tobolsk-Neftekhim facility up to 2021, a joint company statement said Monday. The agreement will see the annual supply of NGLs rise to 1 million ...>>>
Vitol continues NWE naphtha buying spree, 150,000 mt bought for Feb Feb 14,2012
Trading company Vitol bought a further two 12,500 mt cargoes of naphtha on Friday, taking its total February purchases to 150,000 mt, the largest monthly amount bought by an individual company during the Platts Market on Close assessment process since 2005. Since February 1, Vitol has booked eleven 12,500 mt CIF NWE naphtha cargoes for February ...>>>
Sudan, South Sudan locked in contentious oil talks Feb 14,2012
Sudan and its neighbor South Sudan are locked in talks on a dispute over oil revenues and transit fees in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa that have raised bilateral tensions and threaten to unravel a peace deal. In a press release published in local media on Monday, Khartoum said Juba had discussed resuming exports through Sudan "as soon as t...>>>
Israel's Dolphin field estimated gas resources slashed by 85% to 81.3 Bcf Feb 14,2012
The estimated resources of the Dolphin offshore gas field have been sharply reduced, according to a statement by the Israeli partners in the license. Delek Drilling, Avner Oil and Gas and Ratio Oil Exploration slashed the estimate by 85% to 81.3 Bcf from 550 Bcf based on analysis by Netherland Sewell & Associates. Noble Energy Inc is also a...>>>
Sibur and Gazprom sign long-term supply contract for petrochemical plants Feb 14,2012
Russian petrochemical manufacturer Sibur Holding and Russian gas giant Gazprom have signed a long-term contract to supply natural gas liquids (NGL) from the Surgut Condensate Stabilization Plant to the Tobolsk-Neftekhim facility up to 2021, a joint company statement said Monday. The agreement will see the annual supply of NGLs rise to 1 million ...>>>
Vitol continues NWE naphtha buying spree, 150,000 mt bought for Feb Feb 14,2012
Trading company Vitol bought a further two 12,500 mt cargoes of naphtha on Friday, taking its total February purchases to 150,000 mt, the largest monthly amount bought by an individual company during the Platts Market on Close assessment process since 2005. Since February 1, Vitol has booked eleven 12,500 mt CIF NWE naphtha cargoes for February ...>>>
US companies see growth in 2011 Feb 13,2012
All three firms have filed their full-year financial results in recent weeks. Celanese's Advanced Engineered Materials unit-including its market-leading acetals business-saw sales grow 17% to almost $1.3bn (£821m) during 2011. The unit's pre-tax operating profit also increased 9% to $396m (£250m). Based on sales, AEM ranked second am...>>>
UK economy sees bounceback in December Feb 13,2012
UK industrial production rose 0.5% in December month-on-month, leading some experts to suggest a double-dip recession could be avoided. Speaking about the latest snapshot of the domestic economy from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Chris Williamson of research group Markit said: "The improvement in manufacturing meant the rate of decli...>>>
Plastindia needs major reforms, says outgoing organiser Feb 13,2012
The show, which happens every three years and held its latest edition last week in New Delhi, this year hit 1.07 million square feet of exhibition space, making it what it claimed was the third-largest plastics show in the world. That would trail only Germany's K Fair and the Chinaplas exhibition, organisers said, and surpass shows in the US and Ja...>>>
Government launches latest £50m technology centre Feb 13,2012
The government has announced the location of a new £50m facility which it says will speed up the commercialisation of green technologies. The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult will be headquartered at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow with an operational centre at the National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) in the North East of En...>>>
S Korea's Honam plans $5 bil steam cracker complex in Indonesia Feb 13,2012
South Korea's Honam Petrochemical is considering investing $5 billion to build a steam cracker-based petrochemical complex in Indonesia to expand its Southeast Asian business, a company official told Platts Friday. But he added that the company has not made a final investment decision on the complex and is hoping the Indonesian government will p...>>>