Home Blogs Asian Chemical Connections

Asian Chemical Connections

China Polyethylene: Unreal Growth Numbers

By John Richardson One of the explanations we have heard for the 20% increase in China’s polyethylene (PE) imports in H1 2014 over the same period last year (see the chart below) is, as we discussed last week, a surge in demand for pipe grade high-density polyethylene (HDPE). But, as we pointed out in the […]

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’s Leaders Stay The Course (So Far…..)

By John Richardson Everything is still going to plan. As the chart above shows, China’s official bank lending is down by 16% in the year to date as the government rations credit to the big state-owned enterprises. The last thing that China needs right now is even more unneeded industrial capacity and infrastructure. But, of […]

China Lending Declines In October

By John Richardson POLITICS, politics and politics are three most important factors that need to be evaluated when assessing the direction of China’s economy. Thus, in the short term it appears that the surge in bank lending from May to September might well have been to create the illusion of a robust economy ahead of the […]

Reading The Minds of China’s Leadership

  By John Richardson A lot of the projects which have pushed the world into severe overcapacity were based on the assumption that China would remain in big deficits for many basic commodity chemicals and polymers. It was thought that the world’s most-important market would remain a sink for surpluses for a very long time […]

More evidence of China’s export rebound

Source of picture: Businesweek   More evidence is emerging of the big rebound in Chinese exports resulting from government subsidies, including a Yuan now pegged to the dollar, soft and plentiful bank loans and export-tax rebates. More than 9,000 quality control inspections of goods set for overseas shipment took place in Q3 this year – […]

Wearing blinkers is a job requirement

“Take it from me, peripheral vision isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially if you want to get a decent annual bonus….”   Source of picture: www.whipnspurs.co.nz   Here’s a rant for Tuesday – with thanks to Paul Hodges for informing some of the thinking (I’d like to lay credit to certain parts of this…) Purchasing […]

Asia Polyolefins: “Bloodbath” Postponed

Source of Picture : purchasing.com In his own words, here is how one contact describes the current situation with a couple of extra points added by yours truly (with links) “We’ve seen arbitrage close from Europe on polyolefins with no new business since April-May. Some material was delivered in June but this was merely May […]

China petchem imports soar on false confidence

They always say the best form of flattery is immitation and so thanks to my colleague Paul Hodges for this graph indicating a huge surge in China’s polyethylene imports – courtesy of data from Edwin Pang of Credit Suisse. I agree with Paul in the latest post on his blog, Chemicals & The Economy, that […]

Jump to page: