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Asian Chemical Connections

Seven Risks Of Choosing Specialties Over Commodites

By John Richardson CHEMICALS analysts love to talk with great enthusiasm about the specialty end of this business because margins per tonne can be a great deal higher than in boring old plain vanilla commodities. Specialties is an exciting story to spin to investors, as it contains “buzz”  phrases such as “value addition” and “innovation”. […]

How To Grow Sales In A Deflationary World

By John Richardson CHINA hugely increased its propylene and derivatives capacity to the point where by 2011, it became the first region or country where downstream propylene consumption surpassed that of ethylene. This didn’t mean booming actual demand for propylene and what it is used to make. Instead, it meant that lots of “empty factories” […]

Oil Price Recovery: Please Remember 2015

By John Richardson EVEN if oil prices should go down right now, based on supply and demand fundamentals, the financial players will not let that happen. This is the view of several analysts who point to the closure of numerous short positions, in favour of opening long positions, over the last few weeks. In time-honoured […]

Demand: The New Direction for Profit

By John Richardson WE were right about China’s change of economic direction, which we identified in November 2013. We were then right about the collapse in oil prices from August 2014 onwards. And we also made the right call when we pointed out that these two events are inextricably linked. Being right in the past is, […]

The Risks Ahead For Polyethylene

By John Richardson TOO many people will look at the chart on the left and think, “Crisis? What crisis?” But glance to the right for what it is like in another petrochemicals value chain. What is happening on the right could sooner than you think be happening on the left: The polyethylene (PE) value chain […]

This Is Not Just Another Economic Downcycle

By John Richardson ECONOMIC upcycles come and go, but in the end, the fundamentals don’t change. This is the message I have picked up from conversations with senior industry executives over the last two weeks. “All we have to do is cut costs, wait this one out, and everything will be fine in 12-18 months. […]

Another Distracting Myth: Cheaper Oil Good For Growth

By John Richardson AS PEOPLE have frantically repositioned themselves over the last few months, one of the counter-arguments to the New Normal is that cheaper oil is a good thing for the global economy.  The rationale behind this claim is that the drop in crude will boost consumer spending through cheaper gasoline and diesel etc. […]

Oil In Free Fall: What It Means For Petchems

By John Richardson AS crude heads to perhaps as little as $10-15/bbl, you have  evaluate the immediate, or first order, effects on the petrochemicals industry and then move to stage two – what it means in the longer term. Right now, you have to worry about the potential for raw material inventory losses up and […]

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