By John Richardson DESPITE a slight pick-up in China’s polyethylene (PE) prices over the last two weeks (see above chart), producers and traders remain gloomy about the immediate outlook. “What has driven prices up is that new supply hasn’t hit the June market in volumes that people expected,” said a source with a global producer. […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China Affordability Challenge
By John Richardson THE “gold rush” is over in China”, François-Henry Bennahmias, chief executive of Audemars Piguet, a Swiss watch company that is closing six of its 22 stores in China, told the New York Times. Swiss watch exports to mainland China dropped 26% in the first quarter from a year earlier, said the same […]
When Lower Growth Is Good News
Beijing Life on the left, with lower growth, or life on the right with a higher GDP number. What would you choose? Source of picture: Wikimedia By John Richardson WHEN is lower growth good news? Monday ‘s announcement that China grew by a relatively modest 7.7% in Q1 is one example. As the FT’s The […]
Managing China’s Middle Income Aspirations
Finding a way through…. Traffic in Shanghai. Picture: Rex Features By John Richardson WHEN the blog first visited China in the late 1990s, it travelled around Beijing in a fruitless and naive attempt to get people to really talk about everyday life. Last week was the complete opposite during our visit to Beijing and Shanghai. People initiated conversations […]
Less Bling, Please
Source of picture: Luxepost.com By John Richardson CHINA’S industrial output has had the weakest start to a year since 2009 and retail sales growth has slowed, according to this article from Bloomberg. New local-currency loans for February were also lower than the estimates of 27 out of 28 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey. […]
China Coal Cap: What It Means For Chems
By John Richardson IF China’s decade-long focus on coal-fuelled heavy industry is really coming to an end, as this article in The Sydney Morning Herald suggests, then the prospects for further approvals of coal-to-olefins (CTO) projects seem very bleak indeed. “In the first 12 years of this millennium, China increased annual coal use by a […]
“Flabbergasted” By Weak Demand….
….In A Tale Of Three Markets. By John Richardson AS China introduces more measures to clamp down on an overheated property sector and the shadow-banking system, polyethylene (PE) traders regard this latest news cycle as yet another opportunity to go short. “It used to be that the trading business was about supply and demand fundamentals […]
China’s Shadow Banking Problem
By John Richardson IN the best of all possible worlds, more than a billion people in the emerging markets will become a great deal richer over the next few decades. As a result, they will be able to much more easily afford all of the things made from, or containing, chemicals and polymers – such […]
China Leadership Challenges
Xi Jinping, China’s likely new president KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features By John Richardson The make-up of China’s new politburo will be announced during the 18th Party Congress, which starts on 8 November. But don’t expect confirmation of the new leadership team to do anything to address doubts over the country’s long-term economic direction. China will remain in what political and economic […]
Much Less Of This…..
…….. Source: FT Beyondbrics By John Richardson A fascinating article by the academic Anil K Gupta and consultant Haiyan Wang offers further support to our long-running argument that the future will not necessarily be the same as the future, when it comes to China. The blog continues to be alarmed by the degree of […]
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