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)! […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Chemicals And The Removal Of The Punch Bowl
By John Richardson LUNCH with a chemicals analyst yesterday, during the blog’s latest trip to Singapore, gave an intriguing glimpse into the world of those who invest in the chemicals industry. “The Morgan Stanely “Supercycle” report (which the blog wrote about late last year) seems to be on every fund managers desks,” he said. “These […]
December Polyolefin Price-Rise Bid Will Fail
By John Richardson and Malini Hariharan in Shanghai A TWO-TIER China polyolefin market had developed in China over the last couple of years – but the $64,000 question right now is: At which of these two levels will most business be settled during December? The ever-volatile Dalian Commodity Exchange determines the day-by-day sentiment, while overseas […]
Chemicals And Polymer Prices Behave As We Predicted
By John Richardson AS the blog had anticipated would happen, there were sharp retreats in some chemicals and polymers pricing late last week on the steep declines in equity and crude prices. Polyethylene (PE) fell by $70-130/tonne, according to our colleagues at ICIS pricing, as the Dalian Commodity Exchange once again demonstrated that it has become […]
Oversupply In Petchems Still On The Way
Perhaps not just yet…. By John Richardson COULD it be that some chemicals industry players and observers, in the great galloping rush to join the supercycle stampede, have got ahead of themselves in predicting that we are already through the bottom of the margins trough? This distinct possibility was raised by Joe Duffy, consultant with […]
Petchem Pricing Faces Big Declines
By John Richardson THE wheels have started to come off the wagon – as we have been warning about over the past week or so – as a result of a broad sell-off in equities and commodities. Inflation concerns in China and elsewhere, the result of all the hot money flowing into emerging markets due to QE2, […]
Jump to page: