By John Richardson CHINA has long set targets for petrochemicals self-sufficiency in each of its five-year economic plans – and those targets have been pretty aggressive as the chart above, showing the recent rise in ethylene production, indicates. These have involved often-realised plans to raise independence from exports in a particular product to a specified […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Xi Jinping Further Underlines China’s “New Normal”
CHINA’S president Xi Jinping, in a landmark speech at the weekend, talked about the “New Normal” of lower economic growth and a different type of growth altogether. He qualified this different type of growth as follows: “Through innovation and technological development, the country should push for the transformation from ‘Made in China’ to ‘Created in […]
How Jack Ma Is Liberalising China’s Lending System
By John Richardson JACK Ma is a popular guy at all levels of Chinese society. And so, last June, the hugely successful online businessman was allowed to write this in a commentary in the People’s Daily, the government-run newspaper: “Innovation in many industries has been triggered by outsiders.” We think, therefore, that it might be […]
China’s Evolving Autos Market: What It Means For PP
By John Richardson THE tide of credit that lifted all boats in China meant that chemicals company CEOs could get away with clichés such as “the rise of the middle classes” and “increasing urbanisation” and later point to strong sales figures as support for their arguments. But now the CEOs are going to have to […]
China Autos: The Race To The Bottom
By John Richardson CHINA’S autos market is not behaving in the way that it did in 2008-2013, when, as the chart above further illustrates, demand growth was nothing short of staggering. In Q1 of this year, sales growth moderated to 10% – and we think it will go much lower. This 10% compares with […]
Why China’s Polyethylene Imports Have Surged
By John Richardson CHINA’S polyethylene (PE) imports jumped by 26% in the first quarter of this year over the same period in 2013, according to data from Global Trade Information Services (see the above chart). This isn’t the result of a dip in domestic production that had to be made up by imports, as […]
China Yuan-Backed Export Flood Begins
By John Richardson CHINA exported 45,000 tonnes of purified terephthalic acid (PTA), which underlines how a weaker Yuan is being used as a way of compensating for weaker local demand up and down the polyester chain. The same applies to many other industrial chains. PTA imports also halved in the first quarter of this year […]
The Cost Versus Growth Conundrums
By John Richardson SOME petrochemicals companies believe that their big cracker and derivatives projects will produce positive returns in a few years, when, in fact, it could take much longer, say several industry sources. The sources feel that the growth story in emerging markets is becoming ever-more complex, involving ever-more degrees of ambiguity. Headline arguments about, for […]
China Drives Down Yuan To Protect Jobs
By John Richardson WE first warned in December 2011 that as China’s economic reforms accelerated, Yuan depreciation was a strong possibility. And then in May of last year, we picked up the theme again by again suggesting that as growth in China slowed, Beijing would attempt to support the economy through boosting exports via a […]
The “Logic” Of US Ethane Exports
By John Richardson THE search for feedstock advantage is constant, given that some 80-90% of variable costs for any petrochemicals producer consists of the cost of acquiring raw materials. Hence, my colleague Nigel Davis, in this excellent Insight article, writes: The US company, Enterprise Products, is planning an ethane export terminal on the US Gulf […]
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