Improved outlook for polymers in Europe but run rates to remain low

Plants and production sites across Europe have been running significantly below capacity in a bid to cope with lower demand. Improvement in demand is anticipated in 2010, but utilisation ...

Polyethylene prices to have firm start in 2010 with bullish feedstock costs

Majority of market players anticipate a firm start for polyethylene in global markets amid persistently rising feedstock costs. Softer demand in Southeast Asia has been seen in the last...

Naphtha prices to remain strong in 2010

Demand from the Asian petrochemical sector remained strong with cracker operators running their plants at high rates amid improved margins for downstream polymers driven by strong demand ...

Schedule of naphtha cracker maintenance, shutdowns in Asia

Saudi Kayan inks preliminary agreement with Daelim for petrochemical plant in Jubail

Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company has signed a letter of intent with South Korea's Daelim Industrial Company to build a petrochemical plant in Jubail. The plant will have the capacity to ...

Thai govt supports appeal to lift suspension of 19 projects in Rayong

In a bid to shake off the negative sentiment in the market, the Thai national government has supported the appeal to lift suspension on some of the 65 major projects in Mab Ta Phut, Rayon...

RIL raises cash component almost threefold for LyondellBasell acquisition offer

Reliance Industries Ltd has raised by three fold, its cash component for its acquisition offer for LyondellBasell. The cash component of RIL’s US$12 bln non-binding proposal for the acqui...

BPCL fetches premium higher than any Indian refiner in the year

Via tender, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) has fetched the highest premium by any Indian refiner this year, for a naphtha cargo for January lifting. The cargo was a 27,000 ton parcel for Ja...

Formosa to continue to expand to improve competitiveness in 2010

Taiwan's sole privately run oil refiner - Formosa Petrochemical Corp., plans to improve company competitiveness in preparedness for the anticipated robust demand for its petrochemical pro...

Oil prices rise on larger-than-expected drop in US energy stocks, OPEC oil output unchanged

Oil prices ended the previous week on an optimistic note, rising by over a dollar as energy stockpiles showed a larger than expected drop amid an intense cold wave in USA. New York's main...

LyondellBasell creditors seek to expand examiner's probe to ensure fair evaluation of proposals from potential suitors

Creditors of bankrupt Lyondell Chemical Co asked a US judge to expand an investigation by a court-appointed examiner to ensure the petrochemicals company is fairly evaluating proposals fr...

Power outage affects operations at Yanbu, deliveries unaffected

A power outage caused by storm and heavy rains in Yanbu has affected operations at Saudi Basic Industries Corp's (SABIC) petrochemicals plants in Yanbu. Deliveries, however remain unaffec...

Formosa Petrochemicals mulls collaboration with Sinopec

As relations between Taiwan and the Mainland begin to thaw, Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical could consider cooperation with China's Sinopec. The tie up will be for the manufacturing busine...

Fire at second cracker at BASF’s European facilities

BASF has shut down it’s second European steam cracker after a blaze broke out at the smaller of its two ethylene crackers in Ludwigshafen broke out. The fire has been doused and no injuri...

BASF’s Antwerp cracker goes offline after fire

BASF has shut down the 1.08 mln tpa cracker at Antwerp temporarily after a fire over the weekend at BASF Antwerpen. A blaze touched off by a leak in a naphtha feed line triggered the fire...

Saudi Kayan receives four bids in a retender to build petrochem plant in Jubail

Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co has received four bids in a retender to build a petrochemical plant at its complex in Jubail. These four tenders for the 210,000 tpa plant are from South Kore...

Daelim Industrial Co awarded contract by Maaden for preliminary work on Jubail petrochemicals project

Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Maaden) has shortlisted South Korea's Daelim Industrial Co for preliminary work on its Jubail petrochemicals project. Construction of the project, a joint venture...

KPPC’s aromatics complex officially commences commercial operations

Equate Petrochemical Company has announced that the Aromatics Complex of Kuwait Paraxylene Production Company (KPPC) has officially commenced commercial operations. The US$2 bln state of ...

Indian Oil Corp fetches very high premiums for naphtha for Q1 lifting to Itochu

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has fetched a very high premium on 90,000 tons of naphtha sold for Q1-2010 lifting to Itochu. The premium is six times higher than what it had fetched from Malaysia ...

Celanese Acquires Long-fiber Thermoplastics Business of FACT

Texas based leading global chemical company Celanese Corporation has acquired the long-fiber reinforced thermoplastics (LFT) business of FACT GmbH (Future Advanced Composites Technology) ...