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Asian Chemical Connections

China’s Auto Sales Challenge

By John Richardson THE assumption behind big investments in auto capacity in China – and in butadiene, synthetic rubber, polypropylene (PP) and other chemicals and polymer capacities linked to the auto industry – is that, eventually, Western levels of car ownership will be achieved. But Hou Yankun, head of China Equity Research and head of […]

Africa’s Potential

By John Richardson AFRICA was described as “one  of the last frontiers for the chemicals industry” by a delegate during last week’s 2nd World ICIS Polyolefins Conference in Berlin. The opportunity is certainly there with a population of around one billion people, and with six countries in the world’s top ten fastest-growth countries (See GDP […]

China’s SMEs Continue To Struggle

By John Richardson ONE of the reasons why China’s polyethylene (PE) demand growth has been below the increase in overall GDP for most of the years since 2006 has been the relatively weak performance of the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As the state has advanced, the private sector has retreated because most of […]

Turkish Escape Valve Under Threat

By John Richardson TURKEY has long been a useful barometer of the overall health of the global polymers industry, especially polyolefins, because of its heavy dependence on imports (see the slide below, courtesy of Ali Murat Ayar – managing director of Say Polymers, the Amsterdam-headquartered global polyolefins trader and distributor with operations in Turkey). If […]

Southeast Asia’s Export Dependency

Source: Petroleum Institute of Thailand   By John Richardson THERE is a lot of excitement about the self-sustaining nature of Southeast Asia’s (SEA) economy thanks to, for example, nine consecutive quarters of GDP growth of more than 6% in Indonesia and rising domestic consumption across the region. But, as we discuss in this Insight article […]

European Processors Bemoan Volatility

By John Richardson THE blog listened to an interesting discussion yesterday, on the first day of the 2nd ICIS World Polyolefins Conference in Berlin, during which plastics processors tackled the perennial issue of volatility. They complained that: *Trying to build long-term relationships with producers is difficult because polymer sales guys only stay in their jobs […]

Germany’s Skills Shortage

By John Richardson GERMANY’S engineering and chemicals companies are the envy of the world as a result of their ability to find perfect niches in the global value chain. The sophisticated machinery and chemicals needed by China to fulfil its role as the cheap workshop of the world are often provided by Germany, for example. […]

Japan Consolidation Continues

Source: Japan Petrochemical Industry Association By John Richardson JAPAN’S petrochemicals industry remains in consolidation mode, as my ICIS colleague Nigel Davis writes in this article. And, as the chart above shows, Japan’s ethylene output continues to fall. It was down 8% to 6.146 million tonnes in 2012 year-on-year. Future consolidation includes: *Mitsubishi Chemical’s planned closure of […]

Hallucinatory Effects

  By John Richardson THE reasons cited for last week’s global sell-off in stock markets (see the above chart of the Nikkei up until Thursday last week) were concerns over volatility in the Japanesegovernment bond market and the economic slowdown in China. Some investors, however, believe that markets have just taken a pause for breath as a result of profit […]

Everything Is Going To Plan

By John Richardson So far so good – everything is going to plan. The flash Markit/HSBC China Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for May fell to 49.6, slipping under the 50-point level demarcating expansion from contraction for the first since October last year and sending Asian financial markets sharply lower. But, crucially, as Reuters pointed out in this article, […]

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