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Asian Chemical Connections

Benzene heads south – as predicted

Back from less-than-sunny Perth to discover that the prediction from my good friend and colleague Paul Hodges at International eChem has come true: Benzene has headed south because of: 1.) The rise in its pricing seems to have been out-of-kilter with what has happening downstream in styrene 2.) Traders credit might well have stampeded for […]

Even China Polyester Rates Rise

Source of Picture: ChinaMonthlyReview.Org Polyester operating rates in China have started to rise on anticipation that the global economic recovery has arrived, according to Leonard DeGuzman, chemicals consultant with DeWitt & Co. Is this another example of a dangerous price bubble or further proof that we are really emerging from the woods? “The impact of […]

Dalian: A Whole New Ball Game?

Source of picture: waittilnextcentury.blogspot Back to an old theme, the Dalian Commodity Exchange, this story from ICIS news talks of how physical cargoes are being bought and then sold at a price fixed now for November delivery. At the time of writing this was realising a $169/tonne profit. This could be old news, but I […]

Chemicals company H2 complacency?

Chemical companies as a whole displayed “dangerously complacent” views about second-half 2009 prospects when they released their Q2 results late last week, argues chemicals analyst Paul Satchell in his blog. “They believe that demand has bottomed. Although they can’t see the upturn yet they believe the worst is definitely behind us,” writes Satchell. “This blog […]

China polyethylene inventories are high

      A Mars Bar feast in store if crude hits $30/bbl again Source of Picture: Amazon.com       Polyethylene (PE) inventories in China at the second and third local distributor levels are at very high levels, two reliable industry sources have told us.   This has led to some confusion in the […]

China’s Great Property Gamble

Source of Picture: Chinasnippets.com Perhaps this post will help explain why a perplexed Hong Kong-based financial analyst wrote to me the other day, in response to my probably failed efforts to adequately explain rising chemicals demand in China: “I stilll don’t understand why polymer imports from PP, PE, PVC, and even SM (+15% per month […]

Credit Expansion Linked To Dalian Boom?

Source of Picture: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/ We have just started doing our research and so more details later – but see attached this Excel spreadsheet – lendingVDalianOI.xls It compares the increase in lending from China’s banks with the amount of open interest in the Dalian Commodity Exchange’s linear-low density polyethylene (LLDPE) futures contracts. Volume traded on the […]

Some important new petchem trends

To keep you updated on what we believe is happening in petrochemicals, here are some important recent trends: *Futures markets in China are playing an increasingly important role in influencing pricing in polyolefins, methanol and PTA. Trading volume on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (watch out for Focus piece due out on ICIS today) for LLDPE […]

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