MOST chemical companies now believe it is inevitable that China and India will reach developed economy status. Many even believe that their strong growth will mean “the end of economic cycles”. But as we discuss in Chapter 6 of ‘Boom, Gloom and the New Normal’, the new ICIS/ International eChem/ICIS eBook, there are three major risks […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Chem Q3 Results Show Flat Growth
By John Richardson CHEMICAL company third quarter financial results point to what has been apparent at ground level for some time now – a struggle to achieve volume growth over 2010. My colleague Nigel Davis, who edits in the Insight section of ICIS news, wrote in this article last week: “In the fourth quarter of 2011, […]
Not All Plastics Are Born Equal
DSM’s Dyneema replaces steel in offshore ropes Source of picture: offshore-technology.com By John Richardson THE polyethylene (PE) shopping bags that get thrown away in their millions every day are some considerable distance down the value chain from DSM’s Dyneema ultra-high molecular weight PE (UHMWPE for short). Applications for Dyneema® include stopping bullets (it is […]
Expect Some China Chemicals Price Recovery….
….but let’s wait for the details to makea firm judgement, following Wen Jiabao’s comments about more help for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with the government also indicating an interest-rate cut by Q2 next year. How will any financial easing be balanced against the battle against inflation?
China Property Prices Down 30-50 Per Cent
By John Richardson A BIG reduction in real estate prices is now underway in China, creating the potential for more property/chemicals traders to go bust. The China Daily reports that home prices in suburban areas of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou fell by 30-50 per cent in July-September of this year compared with the same […]
US And Europe Polyolefins Raise Exports
By John Richardson in Houston, Texas DESPERATELY weak polyolefin demand in both the US and Europe is resulting in an increased focus on export markets. The US market appears to be in particularly severe distress with, as we discussed last week, large polyethylene (PE) volumes already on the water heading to China. More evidence of […]
PTA And PX Keep Sliding
By Malini Hariharan Asian spot prices for polyester raw materials continued to fall last week as concern on lack of buying support from the China market where concerns about the health of the global economy dampened sentiment. Purified terephthalic acid (PTA) prices declined to a 11-month low dragged down by weak demand and falling values […]
LDPE No Longer A “Speciality Polymer”
The shoe might now be on the other foot (ouch…apologies) Source of picture: http://5magazine.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/reebok_zigtech_5-570×5371.jpg?w=606&h=570 By John Richardson NOT so long ago several major producers were evaluating new investments in low-density polyethylene (LDPE), as the almost-serious comment circulated among business development managers that it had become a speciality polymer. The reasons were: […]
US PE Exports To Flood China
By John Richardson SPENDING time with your customers is always a good idea, but doing so seems to have become even more important during a very difficult year for China’s polyolefins business. The reason is a split between the fortunes of the top end of the business – the more differentiated grades of polyethylene (PE) […]
More trouble for paraxylene ACP
By Malini Hariharan In yesterday’s post the blog made a reference to the difficulty in settling the October Asian contract price (ACP) for paraxylene (PX). Wide differences in price expectations have held up negotiations with buyers rejecting producers’ initial efforts to implement a steep $105-145/tonne hike in October contracts to $1,760-$1,800/tonne cfr Asia. Buyers, citing […]
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