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Asian Chemical Connections

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, […]

“Known Unknowns” And China

By John Richardson IF the blog had a dollar for every time we had read reports about Chinese growth being constantly buoyed by rising domestic income levels and increasing urbanisation, we would probably be as rich as a mid-level executive in a state-owned enterprise (in other words, very rich – way beyond such an executive’s […]

Confidence Is Often Relative

By John Richardson CONFIDENCE can be very relative. So, compared with late Q4 last year when global cracker and derivatives markets ground to a virtual halt, perhaps it was inevitable that January would see some kind of rebound in the industry’s mood. Deep operating rate cuts in Northeast Asia have been a factor behind this […]

Forty Five Minutes On China

By John Richardson CHINA’S GDP (gross domestic product) growth could fall to only 6.6 percent this year compared with 9.2 percent in 2011, warned Patrick Chovanec, an economist at the Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in Beijing in this Reuters article. Even this very-low rate of growth for China will only be achieved […]

Investors Predict Strong Petchems Rebound

By John Richardson POLYETHYLENE (PE) inventory levels are thought to be so low at the converter end of the business in China that a case is being made for a strong recovery in demand and pricing post-Lunar New Year. A further factor behind the anticipated rebound are forecasts of further credit easing by the Chinese […]

The Risks Of Being An Outlier

By John Richardson THE blog has been mystified throughout this year over why senior industry executives appear to remain “in denial” over the weakness of global petrochemicals markets. Time and again we have heard the comment that the falls in demand were only the result of de-stocking. The public mood of the industry has soured […]

The Planning Process Gets Harder

By John Richardson EARLIER this week we talked about the possibility that China might devalue the Yuan rather than allow it to further appreciate. We have since been told by a senior chemicals industry source that this is exactly what the Chinese government is evaluating in case the worst of possible outcomes occurs – the […]

China Property Prices Down 30-50 Per Cent

By John Richardson A BIG reduction in real estate prices is now underway in China, creating the potential for more property/chemicals traders to go bust. The China Daily reports that home prices in suburban areas of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou fell by 30-50 per cent in July-September of this year compared with the same […]

US And Europe Polyolefins Raise Exports

By John Richardson in Houston, Texas DESPERATELY weak polyolefin demand in both the US and Europe is resulting in an increased focus on export markets. The US market appears to be in particularly severe distress with, as we discussed last week, large polyethylene (PE) volumes already on the water heading to China. More evidence of […]

LDPE No Longer A “Speciality Polymer”

The shoe might now be on the other foot (ouch…apologies)   Source of picture: http://5magazine.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/reebok_zigtech_5-570×5371.jpg?w=606&h=570       By John Richardson NOT so long ago several major producers were evaluating new investments in low-density polyethylene (LDPE), as the almost-serious comment circulated among business development managers that it had become a speciality polymer. The reasons were: […]

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