Home Blogs Asian Chemical Connections

Asian Chemical Connections

The Real US Employment Story

By John Richardson THE “Will they won’t they?” debate became even more intense on Friday following the release of the US Labor Department’s employment report for August. Whether or not the Fed will raise interest rates in September, or at least by the end of this year, seemed no clearer as the report showed that […]

No “Breakthrough Year” For The US In 2014

By John Richardson PEOPLE who trade in oil, other commodities and equities don’t buy that many chemicals and polymers because, of course, relative to the US population as a whole, they number very few. Thus, the challenge for 2014, as President Obama talks about a “breakthrough year” for the US economy, is spreading the strength […]

Analyse The Data And Listen To Li Keqiang

By John Richardson IT IS important to look at long-term trends in China rather than be misled by a few positive sets of data. This is not pessimism, just realism. Yesterday saw the release of very good August export data.  Exports were up by 7.2% from year earlier, and were 5.1% higher than in July […]

US Petchems: The Bigger Picture

By John Richardson Access to cheap feedstock, access to cheap feedstock and access to cheap feedstock might seem like the three most-important elements to any petrochemicals strategy. Thus, for many in the US, adding capacity based on abundant and therefore low-cost ethane, thanks to the shale-gas revolution, adds up. US ethylene capacity could be increased by […]

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 seeing a rise in antidumping cases involving chemicals,” a trade lawyer who specialises in the […]

Demand Weakness Dominates

By John Richardson A CAREFUL reading of all the major ICIS pricing reports covering olefins, polyolefins, aromatics and their derivatives over the last few weeks reveals very few mentions of the phrase “peak demand season”. This time last year, the reports were full of references to the seasonal surge in production of finished goods in […]

There Is No Going Back

By John Richardson “IF we build polymer capacity in India the demand will come,” a very senior industry executive told the blog last year. He amplified this statement by explaining that greater availability of plastics would always stimulate strong demand growth for low-end packaging materials etc in emerging markets in general, as the poor became […]

Jump to page: