IRPC, a major petrochemical and energy firm, yesterday signed agreements with GE Energy and GE carbon in connection with its investment plan for a 220-megawatt combined heat and power plant worth about US$200 million (Bt6.7 billion) in Rayong province.
The project will be the country's first carbon-credit trade as far as a largescale power plant is concerned, said IRPC president Pairin Choochotetavorn.
IRPC's 20-year-old power plant is currently fuelled by bunker oil to generate electricity, causing a great deal of pollution due to the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
This will be replaced by the new combined heat and power plant, which will use natural gas and generate 420 tonnes of steam per hour.
Pairin said the 220MW plant, which will be operational in early 2011, will reduce CO2 emission by about 400,000 tonnes per year.
As a result, the project is qualified to join the global carbon-trading scheme, as it will contribute to a reduction in global warming.
At present, a tonne of CO2 is traded at around $15. The global credittrading scheme is expected to be operational in the next eight months.
IRPC signed the del with GE Energy to buy gas turbines and other equipment for the new power plant.
It also appointed GE Carbon as adviser for the project to sell its carbon credits in the international market as part of the Clean Development Mechanism.
Given its scale, IRPC's project will contribute to getting on for a half of the reduction in CO2 releases targeted by the Energy Ministry, which aims to cut the Kingdom's emissions by an overall 1 million tonnes per year in the initial stage.
Satish Kashyap, director of GE Carbon, said a total of 525 projects had been certified worldwide for the sale of carbon credits.
Thailand currently has only 24 of these projects, while China has proposed more than 600 and India 500. Malaysia has 30 projects and South Korea, 33.
Pairin said the IRPC facilities were not situated in the pollution-control areas designated by the Central Administrative Court, which recently issed an injunction on 76 industrial projects in Map Ta Phut and other parts of Rayong. However, the company would be affected if PTT were to revise its investment plans in the pollutioncontrol areas, he added.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
IRPC invests $200m in plant efficiency
IRPC Plc will invest US$200 million to improve the efficiency of its power plant in Rayong, shifting from fuel oil to a gascombined cycle system to cut carbon emissions by 400,000 tonnes per year.
The new 220-megawatt combinedcycle power plant is expected to start operating at the end of next year after a delay of nearly one year, said CEO Pailin Chuchottaworn.
As the new technology allows the plant cut greenhouse gases, the company in-tends to register the plant under the UN's clean development mechanism (CDM) in order to sell carbon credits.
IRPC has appointed General Carbon Pte, a unit of US-based General Electric,as its consultant on carbon trading and the registration process.
The company expects to start selling carbon credits within eight months.
"Upgrading our power plant will not only improve our production cost, but also will prevent damage from power disruptions that have happened quite often lately in Rayong," said Dr Pailin."We can also gain some revenue from carbon trading."
In the past two years IRPC has had five power outages, each costing it 100 million baht."We couldn't stand losses like that anymore since every time the power drops we have to burn crude and chemicals that were in the production line. Otherwise these liquids could turn into bombs and then the damage would be even worse. But the burning creates bad smells that bother nearby communities," he said.
The power plant is a part of the first phase of a $288.7-million, five-year investment plan that began in 2007. Other elements include downstream petrochemical product expansion and safety system improvements.
IRPC is considering revising its $1.184-billion second-phase investment budget because of the global slowdown. This includes deep-sea port upgrading, improvements to oil-refining facilities and downstream chemical expansion.
IRPC shares closed yesterday on the SET at 4.36 baht, down two satang, in trade worth 302.6 million baht.
The new 220-megawatt combinedcycle power plant is expected to start operating at the end of next year after a delay of nearly one year, said CEO Pailin Chuchottaworn.
As the new technology allows the plant cut greenhouse gases, the company in-tends to register the plant under the UN's clean development mechanism (CDM) in order to sell carbon credits.
IRPC has appointed General Carbon Pte, a unit of US-based General Electric,as its consultant on carbon trading and the registration process.
The company expects to start selling carbon credits within eight months.
"Upgrading our power plant will not only improve our production cost, but also will prevent damage from power disruptions that have happened quite often lately in Rayong," said Dr Pailin."We can also gain some revenue from carbon trading."
In the past two years IRPC has had five power outages, each costing it 100 million baht."We couldn't stand losses like that anymore since every time the power drops we have to burn crude and chemicals that were in the production line. Otherwise these liquids could turn into bombs and then the damage would be even worse. But the burning creates bad smells that bother nearby communities," he said.
The power plant is a part of the first phase of a $288.7-million, five-year investment plan that began in 2007. Other elements include downstream petrochemical product expansion and safety system improvements.
IRPC is considering revising its $1.184-billion second-phase investment budget because of the global slowdown. This includes deep-sea port upgrading, improvements to oil-refining facilities and downstream chemical expansion.
IRPC shares closed yesterday on the SET at 4.36 baht, down two satang, in trade worth 302.6 million baht.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
TMB buyer loans for PTTPM dealers
TMB Bank has entered into an agreement with PTT Polymer Marketing, a PTT subsidiary manufacturing plastic pellets, to support PTTPM's dealers with buyer loans.
The partnership is for TMB to provide PTTPM's dealers with its Maxi OD for Buyer, an overdraft facility that promises a high credit line at a low interest rate, for the purchase of plastic pellets. Maxi OD for Buyer offers dealers additional purchasing power at a lower cost.
The dealers also benefit from OD's payment convenience and flexibility unmatched by other types of loans. Dealers also have good credibility since they can immediately make timely payment to PTTPM through TMB SME's Maxi OD for Buyer. And with TMB's introduction of a real-time online system combining order placement with supply-chain management in full circle, PTTPM and its dealers are able to carry out transactions and keep tabs on their progress all the time. Boontuck Wungcharoen, chief executive officer of TMB, said after the signing ceremony yesterday that Maxi ODfFor Buyer offered a new option for PTTPM's dealers. The product initiative was developed out of a realisation that efficient financing would increase liquidity and funds vital to business success in the current environment.
The financial support is consistent with TMB's commitment to advancing all sizes of SMEs, he added.
"I believe our service will be one of the factors strengthening Thailand's business sector, and we will never stop thinking and offering choices to meet the needs of all our customer groups in line with our customer-centric approach," he said.
Pramin Phantaweesak, PTTPM's managing director, said Maxi OD for Buyer represented one of many financial initiatives the company had prepared for dealers and buyers of its products in and outside Thailand.
It will help them accomplish their business mission of selling PTT brands of polymer products such as InnoPlus, for which PTTPM's production capacity will reach 1.6 million tonnes next year, said Pramin.
The partnership is for TMB to provide PTTPM's dealers with its Maxi OD for Buyer, an overdraft facility that promises a high credit line at a low interest rate, for the purchase of plastic pellets. Maxi OD for Buyer offers dealers additional purchasing power at a lower cost.
The dealers also benefit from OD's payment convenience and flexibility unmatched by other types of loans. Dealers also have good credibility since they can immediately make timely payment to PTTPM through TMB SME's Maxi OD for Buyer. And with TMB's introduction of a real-time online system combining order placement with supply-chain management in full circle, PTTPM and its dealers are able to carry out transactions and keep tabs on their progress all the time. Boontuck Wungcharoen, chief executive officer of TMB, said after the signing ceremony yesterday that Maxi ODfFor Buyer offered a new option for PTTPM's dealers. The product initiative was developed out of a realisation that efficient financing would increase liquidity and funds vital to business success in the current environment.
The financial support is consistent with TMB's commitment to advancing all sizes of SMEs, he added.
"I believe our service will be one of the factors strengthening Thailand's business sector, and we will never stop thinking and offering choices to meet the needs of all our customer groups in line with our customer-centric approach," he said.
Pramin Phantaweesak, PTTPM's managing director, said Maxi OD for Buyer represented one of many financial initiatives the company had prepared for dealers and buyers of its products in and outside Thailand.
It will help them accomplish their business mission of selling PTT brands of polymer products such as InnoPlus, for which PTTPM's production capacity will reach 1.6 million tonnes next year, said Pramin.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Magnificent seven
In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Friday, October 9, 2009
IRPC invests $200m in plant efficiency
IRPC Plc will invest US$200 million to improve the efficiency of its power plant in Rayong, shifting from fuel oil to a gascombined cycle system to cut carbon emissions by 400,000 tonnes per year.
The new 220-megawatt combinedcycle power plant is expected to start operating at the end of next year after a delay of nearly one year, said CEO Pailin Chuchottaworn.
As the new technology allows the plant cut greenhouse gases, the company in-tends to register the plant under the UN's clean development mechanism (CDM) in order to sell carbon credits.
IRPC has appointed General Carbon Pte, a unit of US-based General Electric,as its consultant on carbon trading and the registration process.
The company expects to start selling carbon credits within eight months.
"Upgrading our power plant will not only improve our production cost, but also will prevent damage from power disruptions that have happened quite often lately in Rayong," said Dr Pailin."We can also gain some revenue from carbon trading."
In the past two years IRPC has had five power outages, each costing it 100 million baht."We couldn't stand losses like that anymore since every time the power drops we have to burn crude and chemicals that were in the production line. Otherwise these liquids could turn into bombs and then the damage would be even worse. But the burning creates bad smells that bother nearby communities," he said.
The power plant is a part of the first phase of a $288.7-million, five-year investment plan that began in 2007. Other elements include downstream petrochemical product expansion and safety system improvements.
IRPC is considering revising its $1.184-billion second-phase investment budget because of the global slowdown. This includes deep-sea port upgrading, improvements to oil-refining facilities and downstream chemical expansion.
IRPC shares closed yesterday on the SET at 4.36 baht, down two satang, in trade worth 302.6 million baht.
The new 220-megawatt combinedcycle power plant is expected to start operating at the end of next year after a delay of nearly one year, said CEO Pailin Chuchottaworn.
As the new technology allows the plant cut greenhouse gases, the company in-tends to register the plant under the UN's clean development mechanism (CDM) in order to sell carbon credits.
IRPC has appointed General Carbon Pte, a unit of US-based General Electric,as its consultant on carbon trading and the registration process.
The company expects to start selling carbon credits within eight months.
"Upgrading our power plant will not only improve our production cost, but also will prevent damage from power disruptions that have happened quite often lately in Rayong," said Dr Pailin."We can also gain some revenue from carbon trading."
In the past two years IRPC has had five power outages, each costing it 100 million baht."We couldn't stand losses like that anymore since every time the power drops we have to burn crude and chemicals that were in the production line. Otherwise these liquids could turn into bombs and then the damage would be even worse. But the burning creates bad smells that bother nearby communities," he said.
The power plant is a part of the first phase of a $288.7-million, five-year investment plan that began in 2007. Other elements include downstream petrochemical product expansion and safety system improvements.
IRPC is considering revising its $1.184-billion second-phase investment budget because of the global slowdown. This includes deep-sea port upgrading, improvements to oil-refining facilities and downstream chemical expansion.
IRPC shares closed yesterday on the SET at 4.36 baht, down two satang, in trade worth 302.6 million baht.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Ruling may cost PTT 10% of earnings
The earnings of PTT Group and its subsidiaries may fall 10% in 2010 due to court-ordered construction delays at its projects in the Map Ta Phut industrial estate in Rayong, according to Thanachart Securities.
The court ruling, which affects 76 industrial projects, could also delay PTT's planned consolidation of its petrochemical units, the brokerage said yesterday.
"If construction of PTT's sixth gas separation plant cannot finish by the first or second quarter of next year, the group's net profit in 2010 will be lower than the forecast," said Pichai Lertsupongkit, senior vice-president at Thanachart.
The brokerage earlier forecast PTT's earnings would reach 78.13 billion baht next year, up from an estimated 54.88 billion this year.
The 25 PTT projects affected by the court ruling in-B54.88bn clude PTTCH's one-million-tonne ethylene cracker, which was expected to start in the final quarter of 2009. In the worst-case scenario, PTTCH's new cracker and downstream businesses could be delayed from the original schedule to the end of 2010, slicing almost 36% from forecast earnings of 8.66 billion baht.
Without its oil upgrading unit, PTTAR,an oil refining and petrochemical maker,could fall 5% short of its projected earnings of 11.6 billion baht, Thanachart said in its report released yesterday.
The uncertainty continues to hang over the share prices of PTT, PTTAR,PTTCH and Siam Cement, another m-
jor industrial conglomerate affected by the ruling, the report said.B78.13bn
"It's highly likely the announcement of merger deals among PTT associates could be delayed further primarily due to the court order to suspend various projects of PTTAR and PTTCH."
The suspension means the revision of valuations and swap ratios of these firms, the report added.
"We believe the private sector should be protected as they have followed the government agencies' rules," it added.
PTTAR executives yesterday declined to give a figure for the impact of the court decision, saying the affected companies could not evaluate the size of damages with the current information.
"We don't even know what we can do, what we cannot do and what we have to do," said Chainoi Puankosoom,chief executive of PTTAR.
"Each subsidiary of PTT is examining the court ruling in detail in order to evaluate the actual damages. We can't say anything otherwise we will be considered as bad guys. It's the government's responsibility to clear the issue."
The company is considering how to cope with the effects of the operations'suspension, he added."We will talk with our contractors for the US$220-million upgrading project to consider our case as force majeure , as it was beyond our control. We hope they may understand and will not be to harsh in suing us," said Mr Chainoi.
Construction on the upgrade was due to start by the year-end and operations were planned to start in 2011, he said.
The Energy Ministry will also have to put off the new Euro 4 emission standard to 2011, since the upgraded oil refining units that could meet the standard cannot operate due to the court's ruling.
"We are ready to do anything whether they [the environmentalists and the court] want us to go ahead, or make a new EIA (environmental impact assessment), health impact assessment or do both EIA and HIA, just say it. So far we are stuck. Everything seems very uncertain," said Mr Chainoi.
PTT shares closed yesterday on the SET at 258 baht, down three baht, in trade worth 767.5 million baht. PTTAR fell 40 satang to 24.10 baht.
The court ruling, which affects 76 industrial projects, could also delay PTT's planned consolidation of its petrochemical units, the brokerage said yesterday.
"If construction of PTT's sixth gas separation plant cannot finish by the first or second quarter of next year, the group's net profit in 2010 will be lower than the forecast," said Pichai Lertsupongkit, senior vice-president at Thanachart.
The brokerage earlier forecast PTT's earnings would reach 78.13 billion baht next year, up from an estimated 54.88 billion this year.
The 25 PTT projects affected by the court ruling in-B54.88bn clude PTTCH's one-million-tonne ethylene cracker, which was expected to start in the final quarter of 2009. In the worst-case scenario, PTTCH's new cracker and downstream businesses could be delayed from the original schedule to the end of 2010, slicing almost 36% from forecast earnings of 8.66 billion baht.
Without its oil upgrading unit, PTTAR,an oil refining and petrochemical maker,could fall 5% short of its projected earnings of 11.6 billion baht, Thanachart said in its report released yesterday.
The uncertainty continues to hang over the share prices of PTT, PTTAR,PTTCH and Siam Cement, another m-
jor industrial conglomerate affected by the ruling, the report said.B78.13bn
"It's highly likely the announcement of merger deals among PTT associates could be delayed further primarily due to the court order to suspend various projects of PTTAR and PTTCH."
The suspension means the revision of valuations and swap ratios of these firms, the report added.
"We believe the private sector should be protected as they have followed the government agencies' rules," it added.
PTTAR executives yesterday declined to give a figure for the impact of the court decision, saying the affected companies could not evaluate the size of damages with the current information.
"We don't even know what we can do, what we cannot do and what we have to do," said Chainoi Puankosoom,chief executive of PTTAR.
"Each subsidiary of PTT is examining the court ruling in detail in order to evaluate the actual damages. We can't say anything otherwise we will be considered as bad guys. It's the government's responsibility to clear the issue."
The company is considering how to cope with the effects of the operations'suspension, he added."We will talk with our contractors for the US$220-million upgrading project to consider our case as force majeure , as it was beyond our control. We hope they may understand and will not be to harsh in suing us," said Mr Chainoi.
Construction on the upgrade was due to start by the year-end and operations were planned to start in 2011, he said.
The Energy Ministry will also have to put off the new Euro 4 emission standard to 2011, since the upgraded oil refining units that could meet the standard cannot operate due to the court's ruling.
"We are ready to do anything whether they [the environmentalists and the court] want us to go ahead, or make a new EIA (environmental impact assessment), health impact assessment or do both EIA and HIA, just say it. So far we are stuck. Everything seems very uncertain," said Mr Chainoi.
PTT shares closed yesterday on the SET at 258 baht, down three baht, in trade worth 767.5 million baht. PTTAR fell 40 satang to 24.10 baht.
Friday, October 2, 2009
BIG INVESTORS SEEK WAYS TO MITIGATE PAIN OF INJUNCTION
Petrochemical companies are brainstorming to ease difficulties arising from the Central Administrative Court's injunction against 76 industrial projects, while the government has not yet filed an appeal to allow the projects to proceed.
PTT chief financial officer Tevin Vongvanich said yesterday that the brainstorming session would also involve Siam Cement Group and the Federation of Thai Industries.
"If the court does not accept the government's appeal, we as sufferers may ask the court for relaxation," he said.
Surayuth Phettrakul, vice industry minister, said the Attorney-General's Office was completing the appeal, which could be submitted to the court today - or Monday at the latest.
He said the Industry Ministry wanted to be thorough, but would do its best to file the appeal, or the ruling would further affect investor confidence.
Executives of PTT and its subsidiaries yesterday expressed grave concern over the delay of their 25 projects - planned by eight companies and with a combined investment of Bt120 billion - particularly the sixth gas-separation plant and the project to meet the Euro IV emission standard.
Most of the projects are slated for completion from late this year through to 2012.
PTT president and CEO Prasert Bunsumpun said the injunction affected confidence, job creation and the pace of industrial development, as well as the overall economy.
He insisted the group had done its very best to cooperate in controlling pollution in Rayong and had taken into account local communities' demands. He expects a win-win solution for all parties.
To Tevin, the delay in the gas-separation plant, which is 90 per cent completed and waiting for an operating licence, will have a negative supply-chain effect on subsidiaries and creditors aside from delaying jobs related to the projects.
Some subsidiaries, which are waiting for raw materials, would need to import the items instead.
Meanwhile, the Euro IV project delay could prevent the group's refinery from meeting the 2012 deadline as prescribed by the Energy Ministry.
As key subsidiaries like PTT Chemical and PTT Aromatics and Refining could be financially affected, the group may need to review their value and conclude its planned consolidation later than this month's original schedule, Tevin said.
Chainoi Puankosoom, CEO of PTT Aromatics and Refining, said he would call for a meeting with refiners next week for a consensus in delaying the Euro IV deadline.
The company's environment-upgrade project is slated for completion in December 2011, but the injunction means the project would never be able to meet the deadline.
Stock analysts have revised down the earnings forecasts for listed companies that are affected by the order, particularly PTT Chemical and Siam Cement.
According to Asia Plus Securities, on assumption that commercial operation would be delayed by a year, PTT Chemical is expected to be affected the most, with a 35-per-cent drop in its 2010 earnings projection. Siam Cement's earnings projection has been cut by 11 per cent.
Veerasak Kositpaisal, president of PTT Chemical, which has eight of the projects, worth a combined Bt13 billion, said petrochemical prices were changing rapidly and this required fast adjustment. "Thailand's plastic-product export value is now Bt90 billion, against a Bt120-billion value for plastic-pellet exports. What we're doing now is to produce more added-value products, which could push the combined export value above Bt300 billion," he said.
Veteran investment banker Kongkiat Opaswongkarn also urged speedy action on the government, saying that the injunction would damage the country's image and may affect its credit rating. He said it was a very critical issue, as the ruling went against Thailand's policy to attract investment and this confirmed the country's management failure over the past three years.
Srisuwan Chanya, president of the Anti-Global Warming Association, which is one of the plaintiffs in the case against government units that led to the injunction, said the association would lodge a counter-appeal against the government's appeal as soon as the latter was filed. He said the government should instead speed up the establishment of an independent environment body and issue health-impact assessment guidelines.
In the next two weeks, the group is also filing a charge against Industry Minister Charnchai Chairungrueng for putting only eight industries on the ministry's list of projects with serious impacts, against the proposed list of 19.
PTT chief financial officer Tevin Vongvanich said yesterday that the brainstorming session would also involve Siam Cement Group and the Federation of Thai Industries.
"If the court does not accept the government's appeal, we as sufferers may ask the court for relaxation," he said.
Surayuth Phettrakul, vice industry minister, said the Attorney-General's Office was completing the appeal, which could be submitted to the court today - or Monday at the latest.
He said the Industry Ministry wanted to be thorough, but would do its best to file the appeal, or the ruling would further affect investor confidence.
Executives of PTT and its subsidiaries yesterday expressed grave concern over the delay of their 25 projects - planned by eight companies and with a combined investment of Bt120 billion - particularly the sixth gas-separation plant and the project to meet the Euro IV emission standard.
Most of the projects are slated for completion from late this year through to 2012.
PTT president and CEO Prasert Bunsumpun said the injunction affected confidence, job creation and the pace of industrial development, as well as the overall economy.
He insisted the group had done its very best to cooperate in controlling pollution in Rayong and had taken into account local communities' demands. He expects a win-win solution for all parties.
To Tevin, the delay in the gas-separation plant, which is 90 per cent completed and waiting for an operating licence, will have a negative supply-chain effect on subsidiaries and creditors aside from delaying jobs related to the projects.
Some subsidiaries, which are waiting for raw materials, would need to import the items instead.
Meanwhile, the Euro IV project delay could prevent the group's refinery from meeting the 2012 deadline as prescribed by the Energy Ministry.
As key subsidiaries like PTT Chemical and PTT Aromatics and Refining could be financially affected, the group may need to review their value and conclude its planned consolidation later than this month's original schedule, Tevin said.
Chainoi Puankosoom, CEO of PTT Aromatics and Refining, said he would call for a meeting with refiners next week for a consensus in delaying the Euro IV deadline.
The company's environment-upgrade project is slated for completion in December 2011, but the injunction means the project would never be able to meet the deadline.
Stock analysts have revised down the earnings forecasts for listed companies that are affected by the order, particularly PTT Chemical and Siam Cement.
According to Asia Plus Securities, on assumption that commercial operation would be delayed by a year, PTT Chemical is expected to be affected the most, with a 35-per-cent drop in its 2010 earnings projection. Siam Cement's earnings projection has been cut by 11 per cent.
Veerasak Kositpaisal, president of PTT Chemical, which has eight of the projects, worth a combined Bt13 billion, said petrochemical prices were changing rapidly and this required fast adjustment. "Thailand's plastic-product export value is now Bt90 billion, against a Bt120-billion value for plastic-pellet exports. What we're doing now is to produce more added-value products, which could push the combined export value above Bt300 billion," he said.
Veteran investment banker Kongkiat Opaswongkarn also urged speedy action on the government, saying that the injunction would damage the country's image and may affect its credit rating. He said it was a very critical issue, as the ruling went against Thailand's policy to attract investment and this confirmed the country's management failure over the past three years.
Srisuwan Chanya, president of the Anti-Global Warming Association, which is one of the plaintiffs in the case against government units that led to the injunction, said the association would lodge a counter-appeal against the government's appeal as soon as the latter was filed. He said the government should instead speed up the establishment of an independent environment body and issue health-impact assessment guidelines.
In the next two weeks, the group is also filing a charge against Industry Minister Charnchai Chairungrueng for putting only eight industries on the ministry's list of projects with serious impacts, against the proposed list of 19.
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