Leslie McCune, managing director of Chemical Management Resources Limited has sent an email to ArabianOilandGas.com regarding our recent list of the World’s 10 largest petrochemicals companies. He makes some interesting points so we thought we’d share them with you:
Your list is barely recognisable from 10 years previously and we can only muse about what it may look like in 5 years time.
My bets are that the Indian company Reliance will be in the 2014 Top 10 list. Mr Ambani and Co have done an excellent job at bringing up the refinery/petchem complex in Jamnagar and we can see interesting alliance opportunities for the ambitious Reliance team in Asia and the Middle East.
They’ll be at least one Chinese petchem producer in the list. Cash rich and learning rapidly from the well-established JV’s in place with western companies, they are well-positioned to exploit the huge growth potential of the domestic Chinese market.
At least one of the large western companies will drop out. For tell-tale signs of which one(s), look for the introduction or renegotiation (on more favourable terms, of course) of change of control contracts for the top executives. Typically, these presage major M&A or divestment activity.
Many thanks for your input Leslie, we really appreciate it. If anyone else has anything to add please leave a comment or drop us an email.
