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Asian Chemical Connections

China’s Debt Problems

   By John Richardson  Fellow blogger Paul Hodges made  a convincing case in a post on Tuesday that China’s economic model faces some major challengs.  “It seems increasingly clear that China‘s economic policy took a wrong turn 10 years ago, when it joined the World Trade Organisation,” wrote Hodges.  From 2001 onwards, China transformed itself into the […]

Chemicals Companies Sleepwalking Into 2012

By John Richardson CHEMICALS companies appear to be sleepwalking into a crisis as bad as 2008 because they have sacked their in-house economists and take what they want to hear from official bodies such as the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The famous international investor, Marc Faber, recently wrote that […]

Dalian Reflects China-EU Risks

By John Richardson AT first glance it might seem strange that the Dalian Commodity Exchange’s linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) futures contract has fluctuated so dramatically on news emanating from the Eurozone. The May 2012 contract – the one most actively traded at the moment and therefore the one most closely watched by the market – fell […]

China’s Precarious Balancing Act

Him again…..Jim Chanos Source of picture. www.marketfolly.com   By John Richardson THE Chinese government is playing a perilous game at the moment as it tries to undo damage caused by economic stimulus. As it grapples with attempting to lower property prices, while not causing a real-estate market collapse, this once again brings to mind famous […]

It’s Always Helpful To Have A Plan

By John Richardson THERE are four major reasons why the first three quarters of 2011 have been excellent for chemicals companies, which are: 1.) Strong co-product credits have supported what have been weak commodity-grade polyolefin markets since March of this year (higher-value grades, such as co-polymer grade polypropylene for auto applications, have been better) 2.) […]

Polyester still booming

By Malini Hariharan The blog has been listening to some interesting presentations on the polyester chain at the Indian Petrochem – 2011 conference in Mumbai. The global economic slowdown does not appear to have dampened prospects for polyester demand. “Demand for polyester grew by 5.6m tonnes last year which was atypical; we all thought that […]

Latin America focused on new investments

By Malini Hariharan The blog has been scanning ICIS news reports from the 31th Latin American Petrochemical Association (APLA) conference in Buenos Aires to gauge the mood at the event. Participants appear to be sanguine despite the global economic turmoil with talk focused on upcoming investments. Braskem is the forefront. Its joint-venture project with Idesa, […]

A question of balance

By Malini Hariharan It is not surprising to read that at a time when many producers around the world are cutting production, cost-advantaged producers in the Middle East will be maintaining operations at their polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) plants. Producers in the region with access to cheap feedstockts are expected to run their plants […]

China and India: No Guarantees

MOST chemical companies now believe it is inevitable that China and India will reach developed economy status. Many even believe that their strong growth will mean “the end of economic cycles”. But as we discuss in Chapter 6 of ‘Boom, Gloom and the New Normal’, the new ICIS/ International eChem/ICIS eBook, there are three major risks […]

Chem Q3 Results Show Flat Growth

By John Richardson CHEMICAL company third quarter financial results point to what has been apparent at ground level for some time now – a struggle to achieve volume growth over 2010. My colleague Nigel Davis, who edits in the Insight section of ICIS news, wrote in this article last week: “In the fourth quarter of 2011, […]

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