Canton Trade Fair. Source of picture: http://www.vatti-china.com/News/83.htm
By John Richardson
IT would be nice to believe that the improved mood at this week’s Canton Trade Fair represents a long-term turnaround in China’s economic direction.
This reflects a 9.9% increase …
Next month’s World Aromatics conference is a must-attend event for anyone involved with the industry.
It features an impressive line-up of major players, including Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, as well as Dow, Shell and the International Energy …
By John Richardson
THE collapse in Japanese auto sales in China, a result of the East China Island dispute, is just the first phase in what could be a very damaging economic war, the blog understands.
Phase two could be …
Source of picture: Wikipedia
By John Richardson
THE eurozone hasn’t been rescued by the programme of sovereign bond purchases, announced a month ago by Mario Draghi.
Wolfgang Munchau, in this excellent article in the Financial Times, explains why. This …
Source of picture: Indiaagrifarms
By John Richardson
Saudi Arabia continues to pursue its vision of adding social value to its hydrocarbon reserves by creating jobs. This involves going further downstream from basic petrochemicals.
“The Ministry of Petroleum has said, …
By John Richardson
OUR e-book, Boom Gloom & The New Normal, is a set of ideas meant to challenge conventional wisdom.
Some of our ideas will need to be adapted and discarded.
But our essential point is that the New Normal represents …
By John Richardson
AN interesting new report from Morgan Stanley underlines what we have been hearing about Chinese chemicals demand.
The investment bank writes:
“We returned to China and offer a revised message versus our trip last year. Instead of …
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/23/foxconn-taiyuan-riot/
By John Richardson
THE riots and a strike at Foxconn factories in China point to demographic changes that have major implications for the country’s economy.
China’s one-child policy means that it can no longer depend on a …
By John Richardson
THE big hope is that once China returns from its National Holidays (1-7 October), petrochemicals markets will enjoy a big and sustainable recovery.
It is not going to happen.
Throughout this year, the hope has been that the …
By John Richardson
RISING labour costs will impact the viability of US petrochemicals projects as a result of the surge in overall hydrocarbons construction activity, an industry source told the blog.
“Unless companies lock-in their labour costs fairly quickly, before …