By John Richardson
BACK in November 2014, when I first suggested that China might move to self-sufficiency in paraxylene (PX), my blog post was met with widespread scepticism.
At that time, China was moving from a major import position in …
Tag Archives | China polyester industry
China Consolidation? Forget It in Purified Terephthalic Acid
By John Richardson
TOO many people still assume that the above kind of chart always leads to capacity closures in any industry that is as oversupplied as purified terephthalic acid (PTA) is in China right now. In 2015, we estimate …
China’s Polyester Crisis: The Global Implications
By John Richardson
EVERYWHERE you turn it looks bad in China, especially in the polyester value chain.
“So has it always been in polyester. Because of its ownership structure, capacities up and down the chain are often out of sync,” …
China Polyester: Failure To Ask The Right Questions
By John Richardson
HERE is a historical account of what has gone wrong with China’s polyester industry:
Apparel and non-apparel manufacturers were first encouraged to back-integrate to polyester fibres production and then to purified terephthalic (PTA) as the central government…
China’s Polyester Industry And The New Big Picture
Source: ICIS supply and demand database
By John Richardson
THE polyester chain in China is a good example of the dangers of assuming that the big macroeconomic picture will remain more or less unchanged.
Large amounts of purified terepththalic …
South Korea “Denial” Continues
By John Richardson
EARNINGS estimates for South Korean petrochemicals companies for the full-year 2012 remain around 30 percent above where they should be because “most financial analysts remain in denial“, said an industry source.
A sign of how bad …
Fibre Intermediates In Panic
By John Richardson
A SENSE of panic has gripped the fibre intermediates chain as a result of falling crude oil prices, an industry observer told the blog.
“Nobody knows where the bottom of the market will be, which, to me, …
Consensus Misses The Point
By John Richardson
The consensus view on China remains that we have reached, or are near, the bottom of the decline in GDP (gross domestic product) growth.
This was how yesterday’s release of the preliminary HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers …
China Economic Optimism
By John Richardson
ECONOMISTS think China’s growth has bottomed out, thanks to unexpectedly strong March bank lending.
They also think that interest rates will stay low for a long time, even if rates cannot be cut because of the inflation problem. …
China Synthetic Fibres Fall Further
By John Richardson
CHINA’S synthetic fibres chain continues to show serious signs of distress as a result of weak domestic and export demand, according to my ICIS colleagues, Judith Wang and Becky Zhang.
Traders in monoethylene glycol (MEG) must have believed …