REFINING: Exxon to Wind Down a Singapore Steam Cracker from March
Dec-04 09:04
ExxonMobil plans to wind down operations at the older of its two steam crackers on Singapore's Jurong Island from March, Reuters sources said.
- The shutdown is expected to be complete by June and comes as chemical producers struggle with losses from overcapacity of the global petrochemicals sector led by China.
- In the past two years Exxon has gradually scaled down term contract volumes with customers in Singapore, one of the sources said.
- Exxon has a second 1.1m tons per year cracker at Jurong Island and also started a new steam cracker in the southern Chinese city of Huizhou earlier this year.
- Naphtha exports are expected to fall due to the shutdown, ICIS said. Exxon imported around 1.5m tons of naphtha in Jan-Nov compared with nearly 2.5m tons for all of 2024, Kpler showed.
Want to read more?
Find more articles and bullets on these widgets:
Historical bullets
UK FISCAL: Was the speech today timed to try and control the narrative?
Nov-04 08:58
One possible reason for the timing of Rachel Reeves' speech today is that there is a Treasury update due in the Commons today and Reeves may have wanted to control the narrative more by addressing these questions now without the opposition muddying the picture.
UK FISCAL: Reeves repeating that national interest more important than politics
Nov-04 08:45
This repeated line from Chancellor Reeves about the national interest being more important than political gain is also important here. And talking about "honest choices" also seems to suggest large tax rises are coming. But again nothing specific on which taxes in here.
UK FISCAL: Reeves refusing to rule out working people tax increases
Nov-04 08:39
- Something that is possibly a little more fuzzy than expected is Reeves refusing to rule out tax increases on working people.
- There has been lots of coverage of the specific tax pledges (income tax, NIC, VAT) but refusing to rule out the increases on working people does seem to slightly further increase the prospect of income tax increases at basic rate (rather than just higher rate / threshold-based).
