Middle East
Europe: Germany
The German chemical industry has an outstanding position inside Europe. Nearly 25% of chemical product sales in the European Union (EU) are by German chemical companies. Ranking behind China, the US a..
Asia: China
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced in its January 2012 “World Economic Outlook” that the global GDP growth rate was 3.8% in 2011. However, Asian-Pacific nations bucked this tren..
South America: Venezuela
Fig. 1 illustrates the annual gross domestic product (GDP) and inflation from 2006 to 2011 for Venezuela. High crude oil prices have helped domestic GDP growth, suggesting a healthy economy. ..
South America: Brazil
Brazil’s economic improvement was remarkable over the past decade, following many years of slow growth. On average, the Brazilian gross output of goods and services increased at an annual average..
Asia: India
The Indian economy has come a long way since the 1991 economic reforms. A decade and a half of economic reform and globalization is yielding returns that cut across all income groups. The domestic eco..
Asia: Japan
The Japanese economy showed steady recovery for 2003–2007. However, due to the global recession in late 2008, Japan’s GDP growth decreased to –1% in 2008 and to –5.5% in 2009. Due ..
Europe: United Kingdom
The United Kingdom (UK) is Europe’s fourth largest chemical economy, after Germany, France and Italy. It accounts for 8% of the European Union’s (EU’s) $900 billion overall chemical pro..
AkzoNobel to raise Middle East coatings output by expanding Kanoo venture
Under the terms of the new expanded agreement, AkzoNobel will offer products in its performance coatings portfolio, including professional woodcare, automotive refinish, marine, yacht, fire protection, protective and powder coatings. The old deal only covered coil and packaging coatings.
Libyan ex-rebels block access to main oil refinery
The refinery in Zawiyah supplies around 70% of the country's fuel, and a similar four-day protest there in early November cost the government $30 million. Thursday there were already queues forming at petrol stations in Tripoli, although an official said there was no danger of a fuel shortage.
Sabic CEO sees technology, innovation as keys for Middle East petchems
The Sabic chief executive said that the global petrochemicals industry has worked hard to recover from the slump of late 2008 and early 2009. The Gulf petrochemical industry has also shown impressive strength and remarkable resilience, he added, noting that it remains in its infancy.
- YPF, Eni and XRG sign joint development agreement advancing 12-MMtpy Argentina LNG project 2/12
- Maire launches new technology to produce PTMEG, the key polymer composing the spandex fiber. 2/12
- Verde Clean Fuels announces suspension of development of Permian Basin gas-to-gasoline project 2/12
- Vietnam's largest refinery to operate at 120%-125% of designed capacity in Q1 2/12
- Indonesia's Medco expansion plans bet on rising energy demand in Southeast Asia 2/12
- Brazil to rebuild ethanol stocks in new harvest after 21% drop in 2025-2026 2/12

