By John Richardson MONDAY’S blog post on China’s One Belt, One Road initiative has produced a very strong response. I thus thought it was important to discuss in detail what what One Belt, One Road could mean for two major polymers – polypropylene (PP) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). One Belt, One Road is happening because of huge social, political and economic changes taking […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China’s One Belt, One Road To Reshape Petchems Trade Flows
By John Richardson THE ONE Belt, One Road initiative is a crucial element in China’s efforts to economically re-invent itself – and this reinvention has to work if China is to avoid economic stagnation. We therefore know that One Belt, One Road will remain a major government priority. And McKinsey has provided important details on […]
Oil Market Jigsaw Puzzle: Putting The Pieces Together
By John Richardson THE data has long told us that the efficiency of the US shale oil process is constantly improving. For instance, the above chart shows that in just in one shale-oil field in the US – the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana – the amount of oil each well can produce improved by 72% between […]
How To Battle For Value In Oversupplied Markets
By John Richardson FOR the moment all is good, as the chart above illustrates, which details the premiums that C6 metallocene-grade linear-low density (LLDPE) have enjoyed over standard commodity grade C4 LLDPE in the key China market. The October 2010 start date in the chart is when we began our C6 assessment (we don’t assess […]
The New World Of Demand, Trade And Competition
By John Richardson TOMORROW nearly always ended up being better than today for the polymers industry, thanks to the resilience of demand growth during the Economic Supercycle. What also made life easy was the assumption that global free trade would, like economies, usually advance rather than retreat. Pretty much a level playing was firmly in […]
Dip In China Credit Growth A Global Warning Sign
By John Richardson CHINA might choose to once again kick the can down the road by further delaying essential economic reforms, but this is not my base case for the rest of this year and into 2017. Xi Jinping and his supporters are now in the position to accelerate reforms, and so they may well choose this […]
China And A Breakdown In Free Trade: Scenarios For Petrochemicals
By John Richardson MY blog post last Friday, on the threat to the petrochemicals industry of a retreat in global free trade, has gained a great deal of interest. This is good as this is an essential debate. Today I am therefore going to take this important debate further by considering in more detail how […]
As Global Free Trade Unwinds, Where You Have Built Becomes Critical
By John Richardson THE assumption that global free trade will continue to grow has successfully underpinned the strategy of petrochemicals producers for many years. Companies have been able to plan new capacities in just about any location secure in the knowledge that the future promised lower rather than higher trade barriers. But the world has changed. […]
China’s Oil Markets: One Example Of A World Turned On Its Head
By John Richardson The more oil that China imported the more it was becoming a middle class country by Western standards, was the old argument. All of us should now understand that the China middle class story was nothing more than a myth. This helps explain the collapse of oil prices since September 2014. Fortunately, […]
New Global Economic Crisis: Timing Is The Only Doubt
By John Richardson IT IS only a question of when rather than if there will be a further unwinding in all the global economic, social and political unbalances resulting from the end of the Economic Supercycle. Sure, we might get away with it for another six months, maybe 12 months – even 18 months, perhaps. […]
Jump to page: