By John Richardson THE IRONY IS that if the US trade deficit with China shrinks because of the trade war, its deficits with other developing countries may continue to increase as manufacturing chains are shifted away from China to avoid tariffs. The longer this situation continues, the more likely it could be that the US […]
Asian Chemical Connections
G20 meeting: stakes are high for US petchems, manufacturing in general
By John Richardson YOU CAN make an argument that President Trump’s trade policies are good for SMEs that have lost out to China over the last 20 years. But even for some SMEs that source their raw materials from China, the trade war risks causing major damage. Take the example of Colombia Sportswear of Portland, […]
China Reforms: The Global Implications
By John Richardson IT can feel logical to assume that the fundamentals of the petrochemicals business in Asia haven’t really changed. When you think about it, apart from a brief interruption in the region’s success story during the Asian Financial crisis in 1997-1998, everything has been pretty much plain sailing. And in retrospect, the severity […]
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 confronting China’s economy in 2012. We wish that our experience would, at least for some […]
Is China repeating the mistakes of the US?
My current favourite blogger is Michael Pettis, professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, who, in his latest post, makes a very worrying point below. As an aside, and without wanting to take the 1930s analogy too far, this debate in China is a little like the split in the 1930s between the internationalists […]
Go on, stick your head in deeper
Lehman Brothers, Great Depression, SUVs, ostriches, beer
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