By John Richardson WHEN you have built your reputation on a policy that has so far failed, you have essentially two options. You can either admit you were wrong and reverse course or double down on your mistake – i.e. do more of the same failed thing in the hope that it will somehow eventually […]
Asian Chemical Connections
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 […]