By John Richardson HOW you view any set of data depends on where you are standing. A hedge fund manager who has gone long on crude oil might, for example, have been encouraged by this report in the FT last week about shrinking US oil inventories: US crude stockpiles fell by 7.2m barrels in the […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China’s PE Imports: Recycling Ban Adds To Uncertainty
By John Richardson FOR the time being at least, the year-on-year growth in China’s polyethylene (PE) net imports (imports minus exports) has fallen. In January-May 2017, net imports were up by no less than 19%. However, the January-June increase is down to 11% to total imports of around 5.2m tonnes, with the reduction in line […]
China: Real Story On Lending Says Slowdown Still On The Way
By John Richardson THERE was a lot of unhelpful and distracting noise surrounding the release of China’s official year-on-year H1 GDP growth that came in at an unexpectedly strong 6.9%. Equally misleading was the pick-up in June total social financing (TSF). This was taken as an indication that China is backing away from its efforts […]
Income Stagnation And The Impact On The Global Economy
By John Richardson HAVE the post-Global Financial Crisis (GFC) economic stimulus policies of the Western central banks worked? If your answer is yes, you might be heavily influenced by your economic circumstances. Those who are convinced that everything is working out just fine could include the small percentage of people at the summit of the […]
The Blog Is On Holiday – Back on 24 July
Meanwhile, please be careful out there, and may all of your decisions be profitable ones.
China PP Demand Surprises On The Upside, But Oil Threat Remains
By John Richardson CHINA’S PP market, provided oil prices don’t further collapse, seems to be pretty close to the end of a destocking cycle that stretches back to February of this year, when the post-Lunar New Year traditional surge in new import orders didn’t happen. The reason is a further fall in net imports (imports minus […]
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