By John Richardson THE Morgan Stanley Supercycle report, which we first blogged on last Friday, has created a big stir among the blog’s contacts. Click herefor a copy of the report RI_PETROCHEM_BLUEPAPER2010.pdf As we said in this ICIS news article on both the Morgan Stanley report, and one from Merrill Lynch which is in a similar […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Polyethylene And The Stories People Tell
…..quite possibly, yes, but it matters not what you say, only how you tell it Source of picture: freelancefolder.com By John Richardson THIS poor mug might well have been the victim of rumours designed to move the daily price of polyethylene (PE) in China late last week. The author of this […]
Making Everyone Feel A Little Bit Middle Class
Far more choices now… Source of picture: www.mhhe.com/business By John Richardson THE nature of demand growth in emerging markets is a subject the blog has paid some attention to over the last few weeks. Taking advantage of this growth will require the ability to innovate in order to tap into the huge opportunities […]
Petrochemicals Supercycle On The Way – Morgan Stanley
Watch out for the charging bulls… Source of picture: sbynewsblogspot.com By John Richardson A FEW senior industry executives told the blog as long as a year ago that a petrochemicals supercycle was on the way as a result of lack of new supply post-2011 and booming emerging markets demand growth. The babble of […]
Howling At the Moon And PE Price Discussions
Source of piicture: worldofstock.com By John Richardson CHINA’S surprise decision earlier this week to raise interest rates – the first rate rises since December 2007 – has badly dented sentiment in the polyethylene (PE) market, said a source with a Western producer. But estimates of price direction based on […]
More LPG For Petrochemicals – Eventually!
By John Richardson In theory there should be an additional 20-30m tonne/year of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) coming on-stream between 2008-2012, according to Petrochemical Corp of Singapore (PCS) – the Singapore Jurong Island-based cracker operator. This could lead to 5-10m tonne/year more LPG being cracked if the pricing incentives are right, added PCS in a […]
No Going Back, But Don’t Expect Smooth Ride
Cloth nappies?….you have to be kidding Source of picture: babygavin.com By John Richardson IT IS the biggest transformation that the global economy has probably ever undergone, resulting in numerous opportunities and challenges for the chemicals industry as emerging markets continue to boom. The obvious opportunity is for those who can meet […]
Petchem markets on a bull run
By Malini Hariharan The Chinese are back from their holidays and they are buying. This coupled with supply constraints and firm crude prices is fuelling a surge in petrochemical prices. Paraxylene (PX) prices hit a 2-year high this week on speculative activity and production problems at a couple of Chinese plants, reports ICIS news. Spot […]
US Polyethylene Competitiveness To Surge in 2012
George Mitchell of Devon Energy – The “Father of Shale Gas” By John Richardson US polyethylene (PE) input costs will be 50% less than those in Europe and Asia beyond 2012, says a new report by Morgan Stanley. The extraordinary gap in competitiveness is the result of the shale gas revolution that has sharply reduced […]
China Economic Hype And Crude Oil
Let’s catch the bus from now on…. Source of picture: hybridcars.com By John Richardson THE blog has long been worried about the difficulty, probably the impossibility, of accurately measuring real Chinese growth. And it gets harder as the country now has some 130,000 polyolefin traders and distributors, according to an estimate we heard last […]