By John Richardson
WE will see, as we did in the second half of last year, chemical price recoveries on restocking as inventories are at very-low levels down many of the value chains. It will only take slight improvements in …
Tag Archives | Eurozone
Wile E Coyote And China
By John Richardson
THE blog, a bit like Wile E Coyote who always fails to catch Road Runner, has been amazed in recent weeks at certain people in the chemicals industry who, in public at least, fail to grasp the complexities …
Conventional Thinking Revisited
By John Richardson
CONVENTIONAL thinking is that when you have a strong feedstock advantage, you should go ahead and build more petrochemicals capacity on the assumption that growth will eventually be sufficient to absorb volumes.
Hence, several more green-field crackers …
Placing Faith In Politicians
By John Richardson
THE public mood of last week’s Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) conference in Dubai was resolutely optimistic.
But in the corridors, the dining rooms and the coffee bars of the conference hotel, the mood was radically …
The Murkiest Of Outlooks
By John Richardson
LACK OF visibility over what the New Year will bring for the global chemicals industry is a key feature of just about every conversation held with industry executives at the moment.
Perfect forecasting is, of course, always impossible, but …
Relief Rallies Will Not Be Sustained
By John Richardson
FURTHER relief rallies in petrochemical markets that occur over the next few weeks and months will not change the overall direction.
Buyers will inevitably run short of stocks down all the value chains and we thus will see …
Yuan Devaluation Needs To Be Considered
By John Richardson
The “beggar my neighbour” trade wars that many economists feared would erupt after the global financial crisis were delayed thanks to fiscal stimulus.
But now politicians will be under increasing pressure to erect trade barriers.
“We are …
US Chemicals See End Of Profit Boost
By John Richardson
THE extent to which the US economy has become distorted in favour of the corporate sector was thrown into sharp relief by this article in the New York Times (the financial sector is another separate, but equally …
Why China PE Demand Will Not Grow In 2011
By John Richardson
THE blog hears that some industry observers are persisting with the Supercycle theory for petrochemicals based on “decoupling” – i.e. emerging markets will compensate for any new recessions in the West.
We find this baffling as evidence …
Polyolefins In “Chaos And Panic”
By John Richardson
CHINA’S polyolefin market was in “total chaos and panic” this morning, according to a Singapore-based trader.
The Dalian Comodity Exchange’s futures contract in linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) fell a further 5% this morning after declines earlier in …