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Asian Chemical Connections

Thailand’s Military Coup: The Implications

By John Richardson AS THAILAND wakes up to the shock that Tuesday’s declaration of martial law has morphed into a full-scale military coup, you have to ask this question: How is this going to solve anything? The imposition of martial law was designed to bring the two political sides together in attempt to broker a […]

Martial Law In Thailand: What It Means

By John Richardson SO far so good is the interpretation that some petrochemicals industry executives have placed on the long-running political crisis in Thailand. Despite the local economy being close to a recession after GDP contracted by 2.1% in Q1 of this year, the executives argue that: Most of the petrochemicals that Thailand produces are […]

Thailand Solution Seems Out Of Grasp

By John Richardson THAILAND looks as if it is likely to be in political turmoil for at least several more months following an inconclusive General Election last Sunday. The election failed to resolve the crisis because of low voter turnout and some seats being uncontested. Other obstacles to a quick political fix include legal challenges […]

The WTO “Bali” Deal Versus ASEAN Priorities

By John Richardson WHY sacrifice national or regional growth for the sake of freer global trade? This is a question the blog has been asking itself since the breakthrough last week at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Bali. This follows our earlier thoughts on how regional trading blocs may become much more significant. […]

Less Rather Than More Petchems Free Trade

By John Richardson A LOT of the talk at this year’s GPCA conference in Dubai was of the need for more free trade in petrochemicals. There seems to be a risk that as more countries develop refinery and petrochemicals businesses, free trade  will decline rather than increase. Creating and protecting jobs will, surely, be a […]

Prepare For More Fragmented, Protected Markets

By John Richardson Last week, the blog gave a presentation at the ICIS Asian Polyolefins Conference in Jakarta during which we highlighted the anxiety over the impact of increased low cost ethylene and derivatives exports from the US. But only 3.9 million tonnes of ethylene and derivatives are forecast by ICIS Consulting to be surplus […]

China Compensation

By John Richardson A MAJOR Southeast Asian polyethylene (PE) producer has reduced its percentage of exports to China from 30-40% in 2012 to just 10% so far this year, a source with the producer told the blog on the sidelines of the Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC) in Taipei. This is further confirmation of the […]

Southeast Asia ‘s Economic Boom

By John Richardson SOUTHEAST (SEA) polyolefins demand grew by 15-20% last year in some of the region’s emerging countries, such as Indonesia, according to a source with a major global producer. Confidence is high as overseas money pours into super-hot property markets in Indonesia and Thailand. In Indonesia, property prices have risen by as much […]

Asian Polyolefin Trade Slows on Free-Trade Muddle

By John Richardson Polyolefin shipments have been held up in ports by lack of awareness among customs officers at some ports in Southeast Asia over how to implement new free-trade deals, an industry source told us. It seems highly likely that the same applies to other chemicals and polymer cargoes. The Association of Southeast Asian […]

Asean-China FTA: Indonesian drama unfolds

By Malini Hariharan Eight years after agreeing to the Asean-China FTA (ACFTA) and a few days after its implementation the Indonesian government has succumbed to industry pressure to ask the Asean Council to renegotiate tariff reductions on 228 categories of goods across eight industrial sectors. In return, it has offered to accelerate implementation of tariff […]

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