By John Richardson CHINA’S purified terepthalic acid (PTA) imports fell to just 751,000 tonnes in the first half of this year compared with 1.56m tonnes in H1 2013. Meanwhile, exports increased to 232,000 tonnes from only 27,000 tonnes. The sad thing is that whilst, of course, the data was impossible to predict with such a […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China MEG: Understanding A Doubling Of Inventories
By John Richardson THE chart above shows how mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) coastal inventory levels in China have more than doubled since 2010. One explanation might be that the substantial increase in MEG demand since 2010 means that inventories, as a proportion of this total demand, haven’t increased that dramatically. Real consumption of all the three […]
Please Be Careful Out There
By John Richardson Quite often, a chart is worth many thousands of words. The above chart, from Bloomberg, shows the divergence between the soaring S&P 500 index and US macro-economic indicators. The theory is that soaring equity values will be the tide that lifts all boats. Even America’s hard-pressed middle classes will benefit, not just […]
Polyester Another Victim Of Hype
By John Richardson SEVERAL major petrochemical companies only have one scenario for China, which is that its economy will continue to grow at a rapid rate, the blog has been told by people working for these companies. Similarly, as fellow blogger Paul Hodges pointed out earlier this week, when the great synthetic fibre-chain investment boom was […]
Cotton In Uncharted Territory
By John Richardson POLYESTER producers, and their raw-material suppliers, enjoyed a huge boost to their profitability between October 2008 and March 2011 when cotton prices increased by 468 percent from 40 cents/lb to $2.27/lb. This led to polyester being substituted for cotton, and helped inspire a big capacity build in purified terepthalic acid […]
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 the theory that petrochemicals demand growth in general would be strong, as inventory levels in Chinese ports […]
China Polyester Chain Weakens
By Malini Hariharan The polyester chain is feeling the strain of poor Chinese demand. Weak export demand and Chinese government policy are also impacting this sector, as is the case in polyolefins. A further factor behind the problems in the polyester chain is the fall in cotton prices, as fellow blogger Paul Hodges points out. Monoethylene […]
Cotton Support For Fibre Intermediates Declines
By John Richardson RISING cotton prices might well have been the single-biggest factor on the strength in the synthetic textiles chain for the last year. Other major factors have obviously been the surge in crude and supply constraints in both paraxylene (PX) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) – but certainly not in mono-ethylene glycol (MEG)! […]
Broad Commodities Sell-off Beckons
By John Richardson THE blog remains extremely worried that there is about to be a major sell-off of commodities in general, including petrochemicals, as conditions right now feel very similar to those in 2008. Whether we will face a systemic shock to the system, a black swan, on the scale of Lehman Bros is of […]
Chinese MEG Demand Up By 2m tonnes This Year
By Malini Hariharan Global monoethylene glycol (MEG) markets are likely to remain robust in 2011, supported by strong demand from China and a lack of new capacity additions, a top executive from MEGlobal told the blog at the 5th Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) forum being held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). […]
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