By John Richardson IT has been a year that just about nobody in the Asian polypropylene (PP) industry had expected back in the dark days of April. At that time, negative demand growth in China during 2020 seemed a strong possibility. What instead has taken place is a solid recovery in the Chinese economy following […]
Asian Chemical Connections
India’s pollution crisis threatens chemicals industry approach to growth
By John Richardson THE ten most polluted cities in the world are all in Northern India. It is therefore hardly surprising that a Lancet study found that pollution killed 1.24m Indians in 2017 — half of them younger than 70. This lowered the country’s average life expectancy by 1.7 years. These were just some of […]
Peak Oil And The Aramco/SABIC Petchems Project
By John Richardson THERE is an important connection between this week’s announcement by Saudi Aramco and SABIC of an MoU for a direct oil-to-chemicals complex and the Tesla Semi electric truck, which is being trialled by DHL and other logistics companies. To fully understand this link, let’s first consider the wider context behind the Tesla truck […]
India Creates 20,000 New Jobs A Month When It Needs One Million
By John Richardson WHEN Narendra Modi was campaigning to be India’s Prime Minister in 2013 he promised to create 10m new jobs every year. But in July 2014-December 2016, after Modi had become PM, 614,000 jobs were created in India’s eight major employment sectors – manufacturing, trade, construction, education, health, information technology, transport, accommodation and […]
Time To Buy Some Better Advice On India
By John Richardson WHEN was the last time you picked up a bottle of shampoo, looked at the price, and thought “can I really afford this? Might it be better if I bought a couple of single-serve sachets of shampoo?” In the West, even if you are one of the more than 50% of young […]
Modi: Great Words, All The Best, But We Are Watching You
By John Richardson IT IS once again fantastic news that Narendra Modi has highlighted the need to improve sanitation in India, as he also did last month. During his National Day speech last week, India’s prime minister called on listeners to join him in a nationwide campaign to improve sanitation, noting that many women, lacking […]
Modi Pledges To Do More Than Just Boost The Stock Market
By John Richardson THE blog is delighted that Narendra Modi sees the bigger picture through this bold statement: “By 2022, no Indian should be without a home, without clean water, without electricity and without a toilet.” Fantastic. This is exactly what we wanted to hear rather than a load of unrealistic nonsense about India achieving […]
How To Measure Modi’s Success
By John Richardson WINNING an election is one thing and governing is entirely different – as the hopeless Tony Abbott is discovering in Australia (more in a later blog post). We sincerely hope that Narendra Modi proves to be a great deal more competent than Abbott, who has confirmed our fears. Modi’s first budget, which […]
Narendra Modi’s Infrastructure Challenge
By John Richardson NARENDRA Modi looks as if he will end up leading the BJP-coalition to victory in India. This has led to a surge in optimism that he can repeat the “economic miracle” he achieved in Gujarat at a nationwide level. We wish him every success, but, of course, politics is the art of […]
India: Less “Payback” For Pollution
By John Richardson IF you are convinced of the accuracy of Indian government air-quality readings, then air pollution in Delhi is nowhere near as bad as that in Beijing – despite a New York Times report to the contrary. Government measurements, published in response to the NYT article, show that the concentration of harmful particulates […]