Platts Petrochemical news

Houston (Platts) -- 5Jan2009 -- LyondellBassell was expected to continue pushing for price hikes in the US despite concerns that the company could declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. LyondellBasell has already nominated its January...

Houston (Platts) -- 5Jan2009 -- Dow Chemical will remain at 35-40% production rates and not require contractors to come back at the Freeport, Texas, facility until the end of January. The extension of low production rates and not...

London (Platts) -- 5Jan2009 -- LyondellBasell has settled a European January ethylene contract price at Eur520/mt FD NWE with its supplier BP Refining and Petrochemicals, a company source said Monday. For many European ethylene...

London (Platts) -- 5Jan2009 -- European ethanol prices may be set to strengthen on the back of a sharp surge in gasoline prices, trading sources said Monday. "Ethanol will be interesting today as gasoline has come up sharply,...

Sydney (Platts) -- 5Jan2009 -- South Korea's Honam Petrochemical and Lotte Daesan Petrochemical have formally completed their merger, and began their first day of trading as Honam Petrochemical on Monday, spokesman Son-Joo Kim said....

Singapore (Platts) -- 5Jan2009 -- The prices of key polyester intermediates were largely unmoved by crude's rise from Friday's close in the US, with market participants citing concerns over demand as the main reason capping any price increase....

Sydney (Platts) -- 5Jan2009 -- Asia's high butadiene stocks have started to hinder steam cracker and polyolefin plant operating rates in the region, industry sources said Monday. With butadiene tanks already full, steam cracker...

London (Platts) -- 2Jan2009 -- Israel's Oil Refineries Ltd said Friday it has not completed as scheduled the acquisition of Israel Petrochemical Enterprises' 50% holdings in Carmel Olefins it does not already own as the conditions of...

Sydney (Platts) -- 2Jan2009 -- The counterparty risk of LyondellBasell's joint venture companies and subsidiaries has increased following the parent company's disclosure Wednesday that it was mulling bankruptcy protection, Asia-based...

Singapore (Platts) -- 2Jan2009 -- The Qatar International Petroleum Marketing Company, or Tasweeq, has finally concluded the first-quarter review of its term naphtha contracts with its lifters at a much lower differential after long, protracted...

Tokyo (Platts) -- 2Jan2009 -- The reversed flow of methanol from China's coastal areas to the central and northern parts of the country will likely continue over January and February as domestic output has been slashed and imports...

Singapore (Platts) -- 1Jan2009 -- China's toluene imports for November 2008 jumped 550% from October, statistics from the Chinese customs showed, driven primarily by gasoline-blending demand and that amount was expected to surge higher...

Singapore (Platts) -- 31Dec2008 -- Standard & Poor's December 31 yanked down its corporate credit rating on Indian Oil Corp., the largest refiner and marketer in India's public sector, to BB+, a notch below the previous BBB-, which is the...

Singapore (Platts) -- 31Dec2008 -- The Asian aromatics markets are likely to see a recovery by the second quarter of 2009, and a price rebound from what several market participants call an "over-correction" in the third and fourth quarters...

Singapore (Platts) -- 30Dec2008 -- China's caprolactam output in November plunged 55% to 10,000 mt, the greatest decline among all petrochemical products, said integrated producer Sinopec Wednesday. Shadowing the decline in petrochemical...

Singapore (Platts) -- 30Dec2008 -- South Korea's S-Oil Corp. expects to start construction of its second naphtha-based aromatics complex at Onsan over the first quarter of 2009, an industry source said Wednesday. The new facility will...

New York (Platts) -- 30Dec2008 -- Brazil's Braskem announced Tuesday it would deactivate and permanently shutdown its PET plant in Camacari by the end of 2008. PET capacity at the site was reported to be 78,000 mt/year. ...

Singapore (Platts) -- 30Dec2008 -- Iran Petrochemical Commercial Company, or IPCC, has sold though private negotiations, 44,000 mt of refrigerated LPG with a 70:30 mix of propane-butane, at a low double digit premium to the Saudi Aramco...

Singapore (Platts) -- 30Dec2008 -- China imported 180,598 mt of LPG in November, down 8.48% from October's 197,341 mt, despite the cost last month touching a low for the year, according to the latest data from the country's General Administration...

New York (Platts) -- 29Dec2008 -- The US paraxylene contract for December was rolled over from November at 32 cents/lb ($705/mt), a producer said Monday. The rollover was expected following a flat Asian contract at $600/mt in November...