By John Richardson IF enough of the right kind of people say something enough times then everybody starts believing what they say, regardless of whether or not they have done the right kind of research. Part of this is down to a sense of insecurity – i.e. “why should I question what better-qualified people than […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China Restructures The Global Petchems Business
By John Richardson This chart should truly take your breath away as it shows that: China’s purified terephthalic acid (PTA) exports fell from 2.5m tonnes in January-November 2013 to just over a million tonnes for the same period this year. That is a collapse of around 60%. Meanwhile, exports surged – again on the same […]
Creating Sustainable Chemicals Growth In 2015
By John Richardson AS just about everyone, including me, obsesses about the more than 40% collapse in oil prices and what it means for the chemicals industry, here is another statistic for you: 58,000 newborns die in India every year because they come into this dysfunctional world with bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics. The root […]
China: There Is Still Time Left To Fix Mistakes
By John Richardson WHEN something seems as if it is just too good to be true it usually – and this applies to China’s auto market. As I have long argued, growth had to moderate from the 138% increase in sales that we saw between 2008 and October of last year. It is just plain […]
China: Estimating “Wealth Effect Decelerators”
By John Richardson HERE is one of the many charts out there which show the awesome growth in chemicals and polymer consumption in China since 2000. In this case, as you can, see the product is polypropylene (PP), where consumption has risen from around 4.5m tonnes in 2000 to approximately 18m tonnes in 2013. No […]
Starting All Over Again: A Ten-Point Guide For 2015
By John Richardson AS chemicals companies go back to their budget plans for 2015, and redraw them entirely, here are ten things that they must take into account: The oil price is not going to return to $100 a barrel in a hurry, barring a major geopolitical shock – indeed, there is a chance that […]
China Polyethylene: Do Not Assume January Restocking
By John Richardson THERE is a lingering, and, I think, potentially damaging belief out there that this is just a particularly bad oil-driven destocking process and that very soon, China’s buyers will pretty much flood back into the polyethylene (PE) market. In emails and telephone calls this week, most of the market participants I spoke […]
So Much For The Bonus From Cheaper Oil
By John Richardson THE big turning point in Asian petrochemicals markets can be traced back to around the end of July for three big reasons: • It was broadly accepted from then onwards that China wasn’t going to change its policies. There would be no “blinking” via a big, old-style economic stimulus package. • The […]
Europe Needs A New “Marshall Plan”
By John Richardson IT isn’t working. Surely, Europe’s policymakers must realise this? The trouble is that I worry they still don’t get it, otherwise there would not be plans to print more money in Europe. Resorting to extra quantitative easing isn’t going to rescue Europe’s “lost generation”. More of the wrong kind of European economic […]
Policymakers Have Failed The World
By John Richardson WHEN the economic, social and political history of 2008-2014 ends up being written, there are two groups of people who are going to end up bearing a lot of the blame for the new global financial crisis. It is the people who run the Fed and those who ran China’s government until […]
Jump to page: