Spot
propylene costs have been heading south for some time in all three
major markets including Asia, Europe and the US, as per ChemOrbis. Lower
upstream costs such as crude oil and naphtha coupled with thin demand
have taken their toll on the spot propylene markets around the globe. SEE MORE State-owned China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec Group) and the provincial
government of Guizhou has launched a coal-based petrochemical project,
with Yuan 18 bln (US$2.8 bln) investment by Sinopec for the first phase
of the project, as per Platts. The project is to be located in Xingren
county's Qianxinan city, which has proven coal reserves of about 7.53
bln tpa. But as the local coal processing industry is not well
developed, 80% of the coal produced is sold to other regions of China. SEE MORE With recession hitting Europe in 2008, the PE film extrusion industry
took a downturn. Between 2007 and 2009 PE film production fell by 1 mln
tons. About half of this lost volume was recovered during 2010 and the
industry continues to make steady progress in 2011, as per AMI. With a
volume demand in excess of 7.5 mln tons for 2010 SEE MORE Asian currencies strengthened, led
by gains in South Korea’s won and Malaysia’s ringgit, on
optimism European leaders will take decisive action to tackle a
regional debt crisis that’s spurred demand for dollars. SEE MORE Copper, the bellwether for all base metals, is sensitive to the changes
in world economic outlook. No surprise, then, that this growth-sensitive
commodity sank to its lowest in 10 months, triggered by the US Fed
missive on the economy’s downward risk, debt concerns in Greece, Spain
and now Italy, slowing industrial output in the euro zone and global
market turmoil. Where is the chance of recovery of market sentiment when
developed countries are turning increasingly anaemic and growth
projections for emerging economies are shaved because of capacity
constraints, infrastructure limitations and tightening of money supply? SEE MORE
