By John Richardson The debate continues as to exactly why polyethylene (PE) apparent demand (domestic production plus imports) in China rose by 13% in January-June of this year compared with the same period in 2011. Why the anxiety? Because most of the industry people that the blog speaks are still finding it difficult to match […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Holding India’s Leaders To Account
Source: ICIS Consulting By John Richardson It has now become widely recognised that India is in serious trouble. The consensus has shifted over the […]
China Polyethylene Scepticism
By John Richardson THE blog is very busy in Singapore this week and so apologies for the reduced service today. In short, and we will provide more details next week, we have held meetings with polyethylene (PE) traders and producers and they tell us: 1.) Activity remains very weak with the majority of traders and […]
China’s Healthcare Crisis
Source of picture: The BBC By John Richardson “For Hongxia, 39, life is pretty tough (see the above picture),” writes Martin Patience of the BBC in this excellent story in China’s health crisis. “Her husband, Zhang Yansheng, 41, is in the room next door watching TV. He is suffering from a brain tumour and […]
Cheaper Credit Drives Inventory Building
By John Richardson A DRAMATIC dip in the cost of short-term financing seems to further explain why China’s manufacturers have ramped-up their inventories of raw materials. When raw-material prices, including those of petrochemicals, start to rise (see the example of polyethylene above), and credit is cheaper, the instinctive response is to stock-up ahead of […]
Without The Benefit Of Time
Victorian Britain (Source of picture: Wikimedia) By John Richardson LIFE in China can be grim, much as it was in Britain during its industrial development. In China, according to The Economist: A tenth of the country’s […]
Crossing The River By Feeling The Stones
Deng Xiaoping By John Richardson ANDREW Mackenzie, in his first speech in Australia as BHP Billiton’s new chief executive, said that global demand for commodities would grow by 75% over the next 15 years, driven by continuing urbanisation in China and the growth of Asia’s middle classes. The blog wishes that it shared Mr […]
Adjusting Inventories To Lower China Growth
By John Richardson EXCESSIVE inventory building across a range of commodities in China, including petrochemicals, continues to worry the blog. One reason, as we discussed yesterday, might be that traders are in the midst of a liquidity squeeze as a result of the late June credit crackdown. They have therefore taken out further very-aggressive positions […]
China Commodities Rally About Protecting Existing Debt
By John Richardson OVER the last few days we have focused on the increased risk-on trade in commodities, including petrochemicals. But maybe the rallies we have seen in products such as fibre intermediates and polyethylene (PE) are mainly about traders being forced to increase their risk profiles in order to protect existing liquidity. Here is the […]
China Export And Import Data May Obscure The Real Picture
By John Richardson CONFUSED? Perhaps, as was definitely the case last Friday, you shouldn’t be. The thrilled reaction of financial markets to the release of China’s July export and import data needs to be put into the context of it being one positive set of data in a long-running series of negative data. On the […]
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