Saul Ameliach named again as Pequiven's CEO

According to El Universal, Saul Ameliach is back. After approximately one year of Inciarte as the president of Pequiven, a presidential order has named Ameliach as the first person of the company.

The last actions of Inciarte administration as I recall them were to launch the "Saman" software, and to expropiate fertinitro.

To my understanding, this nationalization has been in studies for many years, but having several stakeholders with different interest delay the negotiations.

The fact is that Ameliach is back and time will tell which path does Pequiven follows from now on.

Business Monitor International: "Brazil Petrochemicals Report Q3 2010" - Some thoughts about it

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After reading this website, I would like to make some comment about Brazilian situation and compare it with Venezuela.

- Brazilian policies have proven so far to be succesful.
- Petrochemical business are no longer looking directly to exports, but domestic market (fueled by coming Olympics and World Cup), is increasingly important.
- Market funds specialists recomends to invest in three different places: China, India and Brazil.

Brazil actual position could offer competitive prices, but the real challenge is to offer differentiated position, a long chain of added value. R&D opportunities are huges.

Venezuela in the other hand, could benefit in the surge of polyolefins demand in Brazil, by strenghtening cooperation mechanism, petrochemical business in Venezuela should offer solution to some of the Brazilian challenges. A well planned strategy, focusing on regional integration and cost differentiation.

Finally, for both countries, Venezuela and Brazil, they have to focus in the long added value in petrochemical business. If one of the links is missing, the potential could be undermined.

Recycling policies in Venezuela

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This is a rough translation from this information first made by Javier Brassesco.

The "Law of Integrated Waste Management and Solid Waste" was approved in January (first discussion), and several organizations are waiting for the National Assembly's invitation to participate in the "street parliamentarism" a prerequisite for the second discussion.

The Venezuelan Confederation of Industries (Conindustria) made a very technical analysis of this law in its website (www.Conindustria.org) where it identified a number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies and suggests amendments to some of its 164 articles.

There is clear that one of the items of greatest concern to the industry produces is number 42 of this law, which establishes that "(...) the producers, distributors and marketers of consumer products must implement programs return to ensure the effective reuse or recycle 100% of their packages within three months. "

In Conindustria argue that this obligation cannot be followed, because the country lacks the capacity to process recycle all packaging produced, let alone in the midst of a national electricity crisis.

The main complain is because it represents an attack on the producers of goods, while some punitive provisions (Article 151) are described as exaggerated , which among other things talks about the partial or total occupation of those places where inadequate waste management is carried out.

Clark Inciarte is back

Yes, the blog has fallen again into rumors and this is another mistake, so lets repair it.

Clark Inciarte is still Pequiven's CEO.

Clark Inciarte's legacy in Pequiven

Clark Inciarte was designated as Pequiven's CEO in august 2009.
And by a recent Chavez decision he is no longer the head of Pequiven.

To be able to assess his legacy the following assumptions were made:

The CEO's has a tight control with the Public Relations office of the company.
By taking a look at the news from august 2008 to august 2009 we will obtaine Ameliach's Pequiven, and from august 2009 to today, we will have Inciarte's vision of Pequiven.

The result of the news survey is:



The different colors correspond either to Ameliach or Inciarte, and the height of the bars correspond to a measure of how many newspaper published (M. P.) the same information. Therefore if 8 different newspaper published an increase in fertilizant output the bar will be higher than if only 2 newspaper did it.

By taking a look at the graph you can notice that Inciarte came in the worst moment for the projects, and didn't have it easy either with the labor unions.

It is important to notice that Ameliach didn't suffer any energy cuts, while at the beginning of this year, Pequiven had to save up to 20% of energy

The international donations of Petrocasas also stopped with Inciarte. The fertilizing business was more important, or at least it received more attention from the press. Concerning social responsability, it seems that Ameliach performed better. Corruption is bad for both administrations

Apparently, Inciarte's reality went different as Chavez's reality, as the social responsability and Petrocasas investment indicates, and this could be a more plausible cause than to act by himself without the government permission.

Pequiven and Petrocasas: some facts and figures

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This is a translation of a previous post.

The Petrocasas' project has always caught my attention. Most people in Venezuela, with some entrepreneurship flame in their hearts, think about building houses. There are around 2,500,000 families without a house simply because they aren´t any available.

The questions I want to answer in this post are:

- How much PVC does the Petrocasa project consumes?
- How much percentage is this consumption compared with total PVC production?

These are the facts:

A Petrocasa factory consumes about 3 tons of material per house.
It can consume around 400 kg/hour of raw materials.
Venezuela produces around 180 mty of PVC

If all Venezuelan PVC production is used to build Petrocasas you can build 60.000 houses.

The project goal is to built 15.000 houses/year, consuming around 30 - 45 mty of PVC. Consequently an 20% of national PVC production!!!.

As an ending note, if PVC production does not increase, the Petrocasas project can be compromised.

They are not random news, its a trend

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Petrochemicals project all around the world are being reconsidered or cancelled.

We hear that in Saudi Arabia project in Ras Tanura is being downsized and possible changed to a different location.

We also hear that in Qatar the Honam quits a 2.63 bln project planned. The excuse? Global financial crisis.

So, my thoughts about it... The same as latest SABIC Europe CEO, in its last speech before leaving the company: "The chemical business is a cyclical one, everybody knows it, but yet it strikes me how many people still don´t understand this situation and act according to it".