Flagging-up the dangers… Source of picture: http://www.illusionsofdander.com/2007/08/car-dealerships-and-flag-companies-may.html By John Richardson THE recent 22% and 18% falls in US spot ethylene and propylene prices might be a sign that this yeat’s price rallies have been more the result of stronger crude and petrochemicals re-stocking and supply constraints than sustainable demand increases. As my colleague Nigel Davis, editor of the Insight section […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Was The Chinaplas Optimism Justified?
Too good to be true?,.,,,,, Source of picture: http://www.arico.tw/en/index.php By John Richardson I VISITED the Chinaplas plastics exhibition in Shanghai late last month and was greeted with a wall of unremitting optimism. Here are a few samples of the incredibly bullish comments from senior industry executives (a fuller version of what was said […]
China Chlor-alkali A Real Industry Still Struggling
By John Richardson The mood on the proverbial factory floor can be very different to that in buoyant stock and other commodity markets as the impact of the economic crisis lingers, with the chor-alkali to vinyls industry in China just one an example of a real industry that is still struggling. “From the perspective of […]
Chinaplas: Optimism, consolidation, new plant start-ups and more
By Malini Hariharan Chinaplas has just concluded and my colleagues have filed some great reports from Shanghai. Worries about a margin squeeze in the second half of the year persist but polymer producers seem to be increasingly confident about long-term growth prospects. The chairman of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association (CPPIA) talked of the […]
Good Chance Of Polyolefin Trough Delay
By John Richardson THE betting remains on trough conditions arriving for polyolefins at some point later this year with new supply expected to begin to severely lengthen markets towards the end of Q2. A temporary buying strike in China that dragged on for too long – following overbuilding of local resin inventories – has helped […]
Co-Monomer Shortage Provides LLDPE Respite
By John Richardson AN enormous amount of new linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) output should, in theory, be destabilising Asian markets right now due to recent start-ups and increased production at plants brought on-stream last year and in early 2010. But the big question is to what extent global production is being constrained by a shortage […]
China’s GDP Growth Out Of Official Comfort Zone
By John Richardson China’s first-quarter GDP (gross domestic product) growth of 11.9% – the number released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics – is way above the 9.5% that the chairman of a major local bank has reportedly said is the maximum the economy can sustain for the full year. “It (too-rapid growth) will […]
Yantai Wanhua looks to jump to the top
By Malini Hariharan While looking at China it is easy to get distracted by the activities of the majors – Sinopec and PetroChina. But there is a strong second tier that is steadily becoming more visible. Yantai Wanhua, a major producer of isocynates, is an example. The blog recently heard from a source close to […]
China Polyolefins Growth Forecast To Slump
Follow us on Twitter By John Richardson CHINA’s polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) demand growth is set for a dramatic decline in 2010-12, according to the latest estimates from Shanghai-based commodities information service CBI (see table at the end of this blog post). This year was probably never going to be as good as 2009 […]
Commodity Stockpiles A Risky Bet
By John Richardson Inventories of copper, aluminium, lead and nickel have risen as prices for all these commodities have also surged, says this article in The Economist. Source of graph: The Economists Copper stocks total half a million tonnes in metals-exchanges warehouses in what HSBC analyst Andrew Keen describes as a market […]
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