By John Richardson A HOPE being expressed by chemicals and polymer traders and producers the blog has spoken to this week is that the surge in lending in China during the first quarter will result in stronger GDP growth later this year. Total new financing, which includes both official bank loans and lending via the […]
Asian Chemical Connections
We Told You So
By John Richardson POLYETHYLENE (PE) prices in China fell by $5-10/tonne for the week ending 1 March, according to ICIS pricing. “It is increasingly clear that Chinese growth will slow from the second quarter onwards and this will limit potential recovery for Asia,” say analysts at Credit Agricole. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 3.7% on […]
China Coal Cap: What It Means For Chems
By John Richardson IF China’s decade-long focus on coal-fuelled heavy industry is really coming to an end, as this article in The Sydney Morning Herald suggests, then the prospects for further approvals of coal-to-olefins (CTO) projects seem very bleak indeed. “In the first 12 years of this millennium, China increased annual coal use by a […]
Sinopec A Litmus Test For Reform
By John Richardson CHINA’s new leaders are under increasing pressure to do something about the dreadful pollution that blights the lives of hundreds of millions of people. One Shanghai resident told the blog, “The air quality is so bad here I have taken up smoking again. I figured that as my health was already in […]
Beneath the China PMI Hype
By John Richardson A LOT of stock market excitement, and perhaps a recovery in petrochemicals prices (more next week when everyone is back in action), has greeted the release of China’s purchasing managers’ indices for December. The official PMI held steady at 50.6%, while the final HSBC PMI came in at 51.5%, the highest reading in […]
China’s Risky New Lending Surge
By John Richardson BANK lending is once again surging in China as politicians try to shore up their support ahead of the leadership transition. “The central government has approved up to 7 trillion yuan ($1.2bn) for infrastructure investments since May to spur growth,” wrote the China Daily. This represents 15% of GDP. Real-estate loans in […]
The Worst Things Get The Better They Are
By John Richardson THE more that China’s economy weakens, the greater the hope of a recovery in the second half of this year. This type of thinking was in evidence last week. The release of a raft of disappointing economic data for April boosted the confidence of some people in the petrochemicals industry that China’s […]
Anxiety Builds Over China Growth
Will growth spread quickly enough? Source of picture: www.oraclemarketplace.co.uk By John Richardson Global chemicals production had returned to 2006 levels by October of this year, according to this slide ACCProduction09Versus06.ppt from the American Chemistry Council (ACC). Worldwide chemicals growth rates might not return to 2008 levels until 2012, Jurgen Hambrecht, CEO of BASF, warned […]
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