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Asian Chemical Connections

September Will Be A Cruel Month

By John Richardson SEPTEMBER is going to be a cruel month when the West returns from the summer holiday period and the extent of damage to chemicals and polymer demand becomes more apparent. In Asia, temporary supply constraints in polyolefins, paraxylene (PX) and styrene monomer (SM) have disguised the damage. These constraints will at some point ease, leading […]

China Inflation Pressure Mounts

By Malini Hariharan The Chinese government’s efforts to control inflation are showing no signs of yielding results. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) admitted yesterday that the government was finding it difficult to achieve its full-year inflation target of below 4%. It cited high global commodity prices as a major factor driving up local production […]

The New Normal World In 2021

By John Richardson ALL of us would love to be able to see into the future. Chapter 4 of our new eBook, ‘Boom, Gloom and the New Normal’, does just this. It offers 10 predictions about how the world will look in 2021, which are : 1. Young and old will be focused much more […]

Marcellus shale cut down to size

By Malini Hariharan The blog has been reading with interest a recent report about the Energy Information Administration (EIA) cutting its estimate of the Marcellus shale gas reserves by 80% following a recent study by the US Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS has estimated that the Marcellus field, which stretches from New York to Virginia, […]

Formosa up but not out of the woods yet

By Malini Hariharan Operations at the Formosa group of companies in Mailiao, Taiwan, are slowly resuming but the group faces an uphill task in regaining public and government confidence in its ability to run plants safely. There have been seven accidents in the last twelve months with two fires at the Mailiao complex in July. […]

Chandra Asri stake up for sale?

By Malini Hariharan Indonesia’s sole cracker operator Chandra Asri faces yet another ownership change with Singapore’s Temasek Holding reported to be looking at divesting its stake in the company. The news report in the Wall Street Journal said several companies from Thailand, South Korea and Japan have shown interest in Temasek’s stake, including Thailand’s PTT […]

Rocky road ahead

By Malini Hariharan Asian polyolefin producers confront yet another challenging week. The macro environment suggests that implementing price hikes for September cargoes will be difficult. Stock markets around the world continue to be jittery with concerns about a US recession and debt problems in Europe still in the forefront. Support from oil also appears uncertain. […]

Yet another week of price corrections

By Malini Hariharan Asian petrochemical markets continue to face downward pressure on concerns about the health of the global economy. Market sentiment for most products remains poor with buyers in no rush to resume purchases. Polyolefin markets closed last week on a weak note. Prices of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) dropped $10-40/tonne last […]

Towards a New Normal, not a new Supercycle

GDP growth figures in Europe and the USA have shown virtually no growth in Q2, whilst China is clearly also slowing fast. It is hard to believe that even today, some analysts are still arguing that a new Supercycle is now underway. The blog remains convinced that we are in transition to a New Normal, […]

ICIS Chemicals and the Economy blog

I’ve enjoyed writing the Asian Chemical Connections blog this week, whilst John and Malini have been on a well-deserved holiday. If you would like to continue reading my posts, please visit ICIS Chemicals and the Economy blog, by clicking the link Paul Hodges

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