Home Blogs Asian Chemical Connections

Asian Chemical Connections

US Petrochemicals Will Suffer From “The Blame Game”

  By John Richardson THE chat below provides some very instructive reading as it shows that: Since 2000, overall real consumption in US polyethylene (PE) has fallen from around 12.5m tonnes to 12.3m tonnes (real consumption is domestic production plus imports, and then minus exports, with end-year adjustments made for any inventory distortions). Low-density PE […]

The New Global Financial Crisis: Emerging Market Bonds

By John Richardson EXACTLY how the new global financial crisis will gather momentum is becoming clearer by the day. Greatly adding to this clarity was the latest Bank for International Settlements (BIS) quarterly report, which was released earlier this week. The BIS warned that: Off-shore lending in US dollars had soared to $9 trillion, and, […]

The World Is Turning Upside Down

By John Richardson A COMMON view is that Asia’s petrochemicals markets are merely suffering from a temporary destocking phrase, driven by the collapse in crude-oil prices. So when crude oil prices settle down, everything will be fine. Many people also assume that the current widespread “buyers’ strike” is the result of seasonal factors – i.e. […]

September 2008: How History Is Repeating Itself

By John Richardson WE know that weak growth in China, Europe and the US will have a major negative impact on the global economy in 2015. But does this really mean a new global financial crisis? Won’t the world’s economy instead just splutter along as it has done, pretty much, since the last crisis in […]

Another Failed US “Wealth Effect”

By John Richardson HERE are some alarming facts about the US economy: The wealth of the average American tops $301,000 per adult, which left  the US in fourth place in the latest Credit Suisse Global Wealth report. But median wealth was a mere $44,900 per adult. That was only good enough for 19th place in […]

Chemicals Demand Is Not Going To Return To Normal

By John Richardson EUROPEAN cracker operators are rushing to snap-up naphtha prices before prices rise again, reports my colleague Nigel Davis, in another of his excellent Insight articles. “The lower crude price seems to be driving downstream demand. Europe’s crackers are said to be running flat out,” adds Nigel, who has tapped into the market intelligence […]

Jump to page: