By John Richardson THE assumption behind big investments in auto capacity in China – and in butadiene, synthetic rubber, polypropylene (PP) and other chemicals and polymer capacities linked to the auto industry – is that, eventually, Western levels of car ownership will be achieved. But Hou Yankun, head of China Equity Research and head of […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Africa’s Potential
By John Richardson AFRICA was described as “one of the last frontiers for the chemicals industry” by a delegate during last week’s 2nd World ICIS Polyolefins Conference in Berlin. The opportunity is certainly there with a population of around one billion people, and with six countries in the world’s top ten fastest-growth countries (See GDP […]
China’s SMEs Continue To Struggle
By John Richardson ONE of the reasons why China’s polyethylene (PE) demand growth has been below the increase in overall GDP for most of the years since 2006 has been the relatively weak performance of the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As the state has advanced, the private sector has retreated because most of […]
Turkish Escape Valve Under Threat
By John Richardson TURKEY has long been a useful barometer of the overall health of the global polymers industry, especially polyolefins, because of its heavy dependence on imports (see the slide below, courtesy of Ali Murat Ayar – managing director of Say Polymers, the Amsterdam-headquartered global polyolefins trader and distributor with operations in Turkey). If […]
Southeast Asia’s Export Dependency
Source: Petroleum Institute of Thailand By John Richardson THERE is a lot of excitement about the self-sustaining nature of Southeast Asia’s (SEA) economy thanks to, for example, nine consecutive quarters of GDP growth of more than 6% in Indonesia and rising domestic consumption across the region. But, as we discuss in this Insight article […]
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