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Asian Chemical Connections

Supercycle Claims Dismissed

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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