Chemical News
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America: Lubrizol Q2 Profit Rises, Tops Estimate Aug 03,2010
Lubrizol Corp.'s (LZ: News ) second-quarter consolidated earnings attributable to the company were $201.4 million or $2.88 per share versus $131.9 million or $1.92 per share last year. Excluding the special charges, adjusted earnings were $201.7 million or $2.88 per share for the quarter compared with $138.4 million or $2.02 per share a year ...>>>
Huntsman to acquire Indian chemicals business Aug 03,2010
Huntsman Corp. has agreed to acquire the chemicals business of Indian company Laffans Petrochemicals Ltd. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Ankleshwar, India-based Laffans was formed in 1994 to make ethylene oxide derivatives. The chemicals business, which makes amines and surfactants, has 130 employees and annual sales...>>>
Britain: BP continues with Libya well plans despite Italy drill ban call Aug 03,2010
BP is still carrying out its preparations for drilling a deepwater well offshore Libya in the Mediterranean despite calls from the Italian government for a drilling moratorium following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP said Monday. Italian environment minister Stefania Prestigiacomo told the Financial Times published Monday that the M...>>>
Korea: S Korea companies clinch ME oil, gas projects worth over $3 bil Aug 03,2010
South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering said Monday it had won contracts to build oil facilities worth about $2.15 billion. Under a $1.8 billion deal with a South African oil company, Daewoo Shipbuilding will build a floating production, storage and offloading vessel with a production capacity of 160,000 b/d of crude a...>>>
US lawmakers voice concern over possible hike in ethanol blend Aug 03,2010
US congressional leaders have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to answer a litany of questions regarding a possible increase in the amount of ethanol used in conventional vehicles. Their bipartisan concerns over a possible ethanol-gasoline blend hike were voiced in a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, sent Thursday, tha...>>>
UK GAS: Heavy buying pushes up UK gas prices despite long system Aug 03,2010
Some aggressive buying of the August, September and Winter 10 contracts by a couple of players in the UK gas market pushed up prices Monday morning despite bearish signals from a physically well-supplied pipeline network. The market opened with falling prices. Winter 10, which closed last Friday at 49.95 pence/therm, was seen as low as...>>>
Australian LNGL in gas talks with Bow Energy on Fisherman's Landing Aug 03,2010
Australia's Liquefied Natural Gas Limited has been holding talks with local coal seam gas supplier Bow Energy on a tie-up for its stalled LNG project at Fisherman's Landing, near Gladstone in the eastern state of Queensland, LNGL said in a statement Monday. The company had previously said it was exploring gas supply and strategic part...>>>
US coal production about even from year-ago at 20.7 mil st: EIA Aug 03,2010
US coal production totaled about 20.7 million short tons in the week that ended Friday, the US Energy Information Administration said Thursday. The production estimate, based on railcar loadings, is 3.5% higher that the previous week's estimate and about the same as the production estimate in the comparable week of 2009, EIA said. ...>>>
Europe: Market fails to follow initial August benzene contract settlement Aug 03,2010
Negotiations for the August European monthly benzene contract price settlement continued over from the last days of July and into August on Monday, when a large proportion of the market failed to reach a conclusion. An initial contract price settlement was agreed late Friday at Eur 668/mt or $873/mt, reflecting a Eur12/mt drop on a eur...>>>
Indian GAIL inks pact to market polymers from upcoming BCPL plant Aug 03,2010
India's state-run gas transmission utility GAIL Saturday signed an agreement with Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited to market all the petrochemical products from the latter's upcoming natural gas and naphtha cracker complex in the northeastern state of Assam. GAIL owns a 70% stake in BCPL, whose cracker at Lepetkata in the Dibru...>>>
Brazilian August ethylene contracts expected to be flat to July Aug 03,2010
In Brazil, ethylene contract prices for August should be at the same levels compared to July, said a source Friday. Even though prices went up Eur12/mt in July due to the exchange rate between the dollar and reals, the Brazilian contract for ethylene may be without any movements. Brazilian ethylene contract prices usually fol...>>>
China: Sinopec Hainan refinery to refine 9% more crude oil daily in Aug Aug 03,2010
Sinopec Hainan refinery plans to process 750,000mt of crude oil in August, with daily throughput 9% higher than the previous month, according to a refinery source. The refinery will continue to run at high rate in the second half of this year due to no turnaround plan, the source revealed. C1 reported earlier, Hainan refinery set crude oi...>>>
China: Sinopec to supply 736,000mt of distillates to SW. China via pipeline in Aug, up 1% on month Aug 03,2010
Sinopec plans to transmit a combined 736,000mt of gasoil and gasoline to Southwest China's Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan via its Southwest Oil Product Pipeline in August, up 1% from the previous month, revealed a source with pipeline department of the oil giant. Gasoil allocation was 592,000mt, up 0.3% on month, while gasoline increased 4% to 14...>>>
China: Beijing Petroleum Exchange to start spot trading of petroleum products in near term Aug 03,2010
Beijing Petroleum Exchange (BPE), which began operation on Jul 30, will start spot trading of gasoil, gasoline, fuel oil, jet, lubricant, solvent oil, naphtha, etc. in the near term, according to a source with the exchange. "Under our preliminary plan, we will launch just spot transaction, so we won't designate delivery stocks. We will conduct...>>>
China: Nanjing blast kills 13, forces nearby film extruder to close Aug 03,2010
As the death toll rose to 13 in the powerful explosion July 28 at an empty plastics factory in Nanjing, the widespread and massive damage forced at least one plastics company to cease production. Film extruder Nanjing Jinzhongda New Material Co. Ltd. said 46 of its employees were injured, with two in critical condition. ...>>>
China: After closures, Taiwan's Formosa to delay maintenance Aug 04,2010
* Maintenance delayed to October -local paper * Company may first reopen its No.1 cracker after fire TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemicals Corp said on Monday it would delay maintenance of its No.2 cracker to ensure steady production after incidents last month shut down other parts of its giant refinery complex. The 540,...>>>
Global chemical M & A market will gradually recover in 2010 Aug 05,2010
According to investment bank said that in early 2009 reached its lowest point, the global industrial M & A recovery in 2010. Investment bank Young & Partners president Peter Young said: "With the financial markets improved in 2010, we will see a substantial increase in trading volume." He added: "The chemical industry M & A ...>>>
China: Sinopec HK acquires BP Zhuhai's LPG tank farm: market sources Aug 04,2010
Sinopec Hong Kong has acquired BP Zhuhai's 200,000-cu-m underground tank farm for refrigerated LPG at US$100-mil, according to some market sources in South China. Sinopec HK may take delivery of the tank farm in September, they said. Sinopec HK probably bought this tank farm for LPG re-exports, and it can also build up stockpile with the tank...>>>
China's crude apparent consumption gains 18.56% H1'10: NBS Aug 04,2010
China recorded about 215.30-mil mt of crude apparent consumption in the first six months of 2010, up 18.56% over the same period last year, according to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics. China's crude imports surged 29.97% in the six months to 117.97-mil mt and its output climbed 5.33% to 98.48-mil mt, while exports plunged 56....>>>
China's Jiangsu Sanmu delays new PA plant startup to early Sep Aug 04,2010
China's Jiangsu Sanmu Group Corporation has deferred startup of its new 50,000 mt/year phthalic anhydride plant to early September, as the company is grappling with a shortage of electricity, a company source confirmed Tuesday. According to the source, Jiangsu Sanmu was to start up the phthalic anhydride plant "either Wednesday or Thursda...>>>