Entries from Asian Chemical Connections tagged with 'polyolefins'
We Told You So
By John Richardson POLYETHYLENE (PE) prices in China fell by $5-10/tonne for the week ending 1 March, according to ICIS pricing. "It is increasingly clear that Chinese growth will slow from the second quarter onwards and this will limit potential...
Damage Limitation
By John Richardson POLYETHYLENE (PE) prices crept up by $10-50/tonne for the week ending 22 February, according to ICIS pricing. But, as the above chart shows, integrated high-density PE variable cost margins in Southeast and Northeast Asia remained very weak,...
Filtering Out The Noise
By John Richardson ONE should be careful about reading too much into the above margins for February as, of course, there was very little trading activity because of Chinese New Year (CNY), whilst oil and therefore naphtha prices increased....
Beware Of Excessive Optimism
By John Richardson CHEMICALS and polymer markets have enjoyed a very strong recovery in Asia since November/December, according to many of the traders we have spoken to. "We are getting $150-200/tonne more for benzene and toluene in January compared...
Labour Supply After Chinese New Year
Chinese job seekers at a recruitment fair Imaginechina/Rex Features By John Richardson As petrochemicals markets begin to slow down ahead of the Chinese New Year, which this year falls on 10 February, a lot of attention is, as always,...
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...
A Chance To Win £100
By John Richardson SICK and tired of wracking your brains trying to figure out where the China polyolefins market is going? Are you weary of the Eurozone debt crisis and the threat that US Congress will fail to raise the debt ceiling?...
China PE Growth At Only 4%
By John Richardson CHINA's polyethylene (PE) demand growth was up just 4% in January-October of this year compared with the same period in 2010, as the chart above from Global Trade Information Services (GTIS) indicates. And yet in January,...
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...
Weak PE Margins Reflect Big Picture
By John Richardson BEFORE we look at last week's political handover in China in more detail tomorrow, while on Friday we will return to our theme of Asian demographics, the above slide illustrates what the big picture has meant for...
Asian PE Recovery On "China Turning Point"
By John Richardson ASIAN polyethylene (PE) prices rose by $10-30/tonne for the week ending 9 November in response to reports of low inventories, according to ICIS. A further improvement in the market is anticipated by one trader, as a result of the...
China PE Imports Rise On Recovery Theory
By John Richardson A SURGE in polyethylene (PE) shipments to China has exerted further stress on a market that continues to perform exceptionally badly. Total PE imports in August (the latest figures availabe) rose to 817,277 tonnes from 681,100 tonnes in...
Managing European Volatility
By John Richardson THE blog was in Amsterdam this week for an ICIS training event involving delegates who were European chemicals and polymer buyers. They had one overriding question for us: "How on earth do we manage the extreme volatility...
Real Demand In The Real Economy
By John Richardson THE FED'S decision to launch quantitative easing 3 (QE3), a series of open-ended steps more radical than anything it has attempted before, is bound to drive petrochemicals pricing higher, in response to the surging cost of crude....
"Good News" Over China Bank Lending
By John Richardson CHINA'S new local currency lending rose to 703.9 billion Yuan ($111 billion) last month, way ahead of July's 540.1 billion Yuan. If a you are trader in the Dalian Commodity Exchange's futures contract in linear-low density (LLDPE)...
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)....
Dysfunctional Oil Markets
By John Richardson "HOW do a I tell my customers that polyethylene (PE) price rises are justified by more expensive naphtha, when the market is so weak?" asked an Asia-based sales and marketing executive with a major producer earlier this...
Global Polyethylene Margin Picture
By John Richardson ASIAN high-density polyethylene (HDPE) margins have improved in June and July compared with the rest of the year, according to the above chart from the ICIS Weekly PE Margin Report. But the overall year-to-date trend illustrates how...
Polyolefin Demand Remains "Very Weak"
By John Richardson DEMAND remains "very weak" in China's polyolefins markets, said a sales and marketing executive with a major Western producer. "I am having real trouble justifying higher prices to my customers, which are partly the result of...
China's Unreliable GDP Data
By John Richardson THE economic slowdown throughout Asia became more apparent last week with the release of disappointing data, prompting interest rate cuts in China, Vietnam and South Korea. China's key polyethylene (PE) market responded as trading volumes fell...
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