Entries from Asian Chemical Connections tagged with 'China petrochemicals'
China Will Do What Suits China
By John Richardson CHINA might well be in the midst of deflation caused by overcapacity in some chemicals, and in many other industries as well, but the longer-term strategic direction of reducing dependence on imports doesn't appear to have changed....
China Producer Price Deflation Continues
By John Richardson China's factory-gate prices have fallen for 14 months in a row because of huge overcapacity in many industries, said the Wall Street Journal in this article. "Producer prices - a measure of prices of goods before they...
China PE Demand In 2013: Flat Or Declining
By John Richardson SENTIMENT continues to severely undermine polyethylene (PE) demand in China as converters, lacking confidence in a big new economic stimulus programme later this year, keep their raw-material purchases to an absolute minimum. "It used to be the case...
One In Three Chance Of 5% China GDP Growth
By John Richardson THERE is a one in three chance of China's real GDP growth averaging 5% or less over four consecutive quarters before the end of 2014, warns Nomura, said Bloomberg in this article. And the bank added that...
Sinopec And The Blog's Favourite Triangle
By John Richardson ONE of Sinopec's subsidiaries, Shanghai Petrochemical, has weighed-in to the debate over US shale gas by warning that cheap petrochemicals imports from the States could erode the whole of China's competitiveness. "We can't tell how severe the...
China Manufacturing Relocation Accelerates
Source of graph: Standard Chartered By John Richardson WORKING conditions matter as much as higher salaries for China's emboldened manufacturing workforce, according to this article in the Financial Times. "As the number of available workers falls, factories struggle...
Everywhere You Look
By John Richardson EVERYWHERE you look across China's petrochemical markets the story is the same as in polyethylene (PE): Exceptionally weak demand during a time of the year when demand should be good. Take purified terephthalic acid (PTA) as an example....
The First Quarter Financial Results Dilemma
By John Richardson EUROPEAN olefins markets have turned decidedly bearish, according to my ICIS colleague, Nel Weddle. "Although the lack of pre-buying in February ahead of a much talked-about increase for March contract prices had been deemed a bearish signal,...
China Demand Worse Than Just Before CNY
By John Richardson CHINA'S demand for polyethylene (PE) is lower than immediately ahead of the February Chinese New Year (CNY) break, said a Singapore-based polyolefins trader. "For demand to be less than just before the New Year, when most traders...
Sinopec A Litmus Test For Reform
By John Richardson CHINA's new leaders are under increasing pressure to do something about the dreadful pollution that blights the lives of hundreds of millions of people. One Shanghai resident told the blog, "The air quality is so bad here...
The Attention Span Of Commodity Markets
By John Richardson PARTICIPANTS in commodity and financial markets sometimes appear to have very short attention spans. But they are merely doing their jobs by seeking to stretch out rallies as long as possible through claiming everything that was being...
1.5m tonnes Of New Asian PE Supply In 2013
By John Richardson SOME 1.5m tonnes of new polyethylene (PE) supply will arrive in the Asian market during 2013 at a time of very uncertain and fragile demand, a source with a global producer has told the blog. A large amount...
China Polyolefins Recovery Continues.....
.....For Now By John Richardson RELATIVE to most of 2012 - when China's polyolefins market was in dire straits - November, December and early January have been excellent for traders who took the right positions. At least one producer...
Beneath the China PMI Hype
By John Richardson A LOT of stock market excitement, and perhaps a recovery in petrochemicals prices (more next week when everyone is back in action), has greeted the release of China's purchasing managers' indices for December. The official PMI held steady...
US Support For Big China Shale Gas Challenge.....
........Significant Commercial Production "At least Ten Years Away" By John Richardson A US-China Shale Gas Training Programme has been launched by the independent White House agency, the US Trade & Development Agency (USTDA). An initial $378,000 will be invested to...
Northeast Asian PE Margins At Record Low
By John Richardson THE above slide shows how bad the polyethylene (PE) market has been in 2012. Based on data from the ICIS pricing Asian PE Margin Report, it shows how Northeast Asian high-density (HDPE) integrated variable cost margins have...
China's Risky New Lending Surge
By John Richardson BANK lending is once again surging in China as politicians try to shore up their support ahead of the leadership transition. "The central government has approved up to 7 trillion yuan ($1.2bn) for infrastructure investments since May...
China Reformer Sidelined
By John Richardson AN assumption is that economic reformers will win control of China's Politburo after the once-in-a-decade leadership transition is out of the way (China's new set of leaders are set to be announced during the 18th Party Congress,...
Morgan Stanley Turns Bearish
By John Richardson AN interesting new report from Morgan Stanley underlines what we have been hearing about Chinese chemicals demand. The investment bank writes: "We returned to China and offer a revised message versus our trip last year. Instead...
China PE Demand Weakness Continues
By John Richardson LET'S put this into context: China's polyethylene (PE) demand grew by 53 percent in 2008-2010. Growth during the first seven months of this year was just 1.7 percent over Januuary-July 2011, according to Global Trade Information Services (GTIS)....
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