Petrochemical Outlook 2008: Latin America Growing in Polyethylene

2008 seems to be a growing time for Latin America Polyethylene (PE) industry with growth in 2008 is expected to come from Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela and Chile. This is amidst Brazil's new resolution to become the regional leader of petrochemicals.

Brazil will become the key player in the region with export of polyethylene into Argentina, where growth is very limited due to the political crisis with the victory of Cristina Kirchner.

Argentina's local polyethylene producer, Dow has been actively looking associations with O&G (oil and gas) companies for feedstock guarantee. Brazil will continue exporting its LDPE (low density polyethylene) into Argentina and with raw materials climbing up, revenues would hit Brazil.

US Petchem Industry Looking Gloomy Due to Recession

Everyone is talking about it, the US subprime crisis and the recession that is coming in 2008. The recession means less demand and US petchem industry is likely to suffer and be dependent totally on export.

The US housing market seems to have a high bearing on the economy and most business and economic analysts are in tandem with a conclusion that there will be a recession at least in the US in 2008 and this includes the chief of the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

Since end users of petrochemical products include those of housing and construction where most

Market Outlook for Russia, Expansion of Petrochemicals

Lets have a look at Russia petchem industry outlook in 2008, the long and short of it.

Currently, Russia is one of the most prominent world leading oil and gas producers due to its high reserve in the country. Russia holds the biggest gas reserve in the world but more than half of its plastics and petrochemical products are imported. 2008 will look into a change in this and potentially become the biggest petrochemical producer in the world.

Russia is planning to raise the overall production of chemicals and petrochemicals by 40% by 2015 at a whopping $163 billion. The plan will comprise of 800 new petrochemical plants expansion and empl0yment

Benazir Bhutto Assasination and Pakistan Petchem Industry Risk Assessment

The recent assassination of former Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan is likely to slow down foreign investment in Pakistan due to the political instability. Analysts, however is confident that the impact would be temporary with risk period to be around two quarters or 6 months period.

The death of Pakistan's beloved former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto had somehow impacted the financial

Market Outlook for Polystyrene

Petrochemical outlook for 2008 polystyrene (PS) looks rather interesting with market trend is expecting to see Middle East polystyrene to be bullish with a lot of new capacity expansion for polystyrene chemical plants to be built at the expense of the South Asia Market.

Price for Polystyrene likely to remain strong and high due to tight supply in Middle East, with a different