Entries from Asian Chemical Connections tagged with 'oil prices'
Crude, Demand Destruction & Irresponsible Bankers
Source of picture: www.walletpop.com By John Richardson In his own words Paul Hodges of International e-Chem - and also a fellow blogger - puts in a nutshell some of the dangers confronting the chemicals industry as we...
US Dollar Carry Trade Threat To Chemicals
Stay cool and don't panic! Source of picture: www.wired.com By John Richardson THE growth of the carry trade US dollars - leading to a sharp depreciation of the greenback and possibly of many other unintended consequences - represents...
Naphtha Highest Level For More Than A Year
Shelf-space to be in short supply again? Source of picture: www.zrdata.com ASIAN naphtha prices hit their highest level for more than a year yesterday - reaching $701/tonne CFR Japan for second-half December open-spec material on "improved market conditions". Earlier this...
Some Very Crude Perceptions
Source of picture: www.prisonplanet.com Misleading perceptions can be very dangerous - especially when they apply to the crude-oil futures markets. "The price has more than doubled this year partly because of the belief that the recovery in...
To Cut Rates Or Not To Cut...
A Famous Ditherer Source of picture: sarafinewordpress.com Chasing higher oil prices and/or a response to the now long-running recovery in Chinese demand that's become sustainable? Not wanting to sound too much like the start of a famous Shakespeare soliloquy,...
China's chemical imports up - again!
By John Richardson We don't have the actual data yet (hopefully, we'll be able to give you the numbers later this week), but...... ......China's commodity chemicals and polymer imports "continued to amaze" in September with monoethylene glycol (MEG) shipments hitting...
How ridiculous does ridiculous have to get?
"YES, I HEAR YOU - I'M LISTENING...." Source of picture: New York Daily News How ridiculous does crude-oil pricing have to become before regulatory reforms occur that limit the role of financial speculation in a helpful way? This was...
Beware of the usual smoke and mirrors
Flying the flag for Q3... Source of picture: etftrends.com Yes, Q3 earnings season is almost upon us with the usual headline-grabbing improvements in carefully selected reported numbers. What this season might tell us about the overall direction of everything is,...
Is the risk of staying long worth it?
Source of picture: Time.com Yesterday I talked about lack of willingness by western banks to lend money because their focus was on rebuilding reserves. But Steven Major, Global Head of HSBC's Fixed Income Strategy Team, puts a...
We are heading for $45 a barrel crude this year
SWIMMING IN OIL? Source of Picture: fashionfunky.com The threat posed by Iran test-firing its Shahab-3 missiles and a rally in US equities on increased M& activity in the drug and technology industries pushed crude slightly higher yesterday...
All At Stake And At Sea For October
A bit like the fund managers who are anxious to keep the equities rallies going until the end of the year in order to protect bonuses, there must be a lot of petrochemicals people hoping pricing in our sector...
Taking Back Control Of Crude Markets
Goldman Sachs is talking about crude oil at $85 a barrel by the end of the year. Sound familiar? Not quite forecasts of $200 a barrel, but is there a danger of repeating the mistake that the James A...
Excessive Confidence A Risk
Confidence along all the chemicals value chains is always a key issue because of the ability to aggressively manage inventories, according to the London-based chemicals analyst Paul Satchell. So there's the ever-present risk of sudden and very disruptive de-stocking....
China's commodity stockpile gamble
Source of Picture: Australiannews.com In this article in the South China Morning Post (you can register for free for 14 days if you are not already a subscriber) Michael Pettis makes the argument that China is taking a big...
Chemicals company H2 complacency?
Chemical companies as a whole displayed "dangerously complacent" views about second-half 2009 prospects when they released their Q2 results late last week, argues chemicals analyst Paul Satchell in his blog. "They believe that demand has bottomed. Although they can't...
Futures, Recycling Behind China PE Mystery?
Picture: The China Daily "I've given up trying to read the polyolefin market in China. I just can't figure out what's going on," said a senior source with a major North American producer late last week. "I keep returning...
China petchem imports soar on false confidence
They always say the best form of flattery is immitation and so thanks to my colleague Paul Hodges for this graph indicating a huge surge in China's polyethylene imports - courtesy of data from Edwin Pang of Credit Suisse. I...
Artificial price support about to disappear
Source of picture: gilesbowkett.blogspot.com The excellent daily energy and shipping report, The Schork Report said today that the bottom had "fallen out of the entire (energy) complex." With the Bulls on the defensive, the authors believe that crude could...
An Affair To Remember
Source:Amazon.com I remain perplexed by the direction of chemicals, oil and commodity markets over the last few months - and now I understand the reason why. It's not about feedstock, it's not about inventory levels or what end-use demand...
Be very careful what you wish for...
Source of picture: The Nymex To continue the same theme of earlier this week, I agree with my fellow blogger Paul Hodges when he warns that OPEC's price target for $75-80/bbl could nip the nascent economic recovery in the...
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