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 […]
Asian Chemical Connections
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 […]
Getting Education Right Is Crucial
The brightest and the best, but will there be enough of them? Source of picture: schoolsinnewdelhi.com By John Richardson EDUCATION, education and education are three of the biggest challenges facing developing countries over the next 10-20 years. This will determine overall growth of economies. Without the right skill sets the rapid rates of […]
Indian PP Growth On The Right Track
Here’s the stereotype…. Source of picture: www.watblog.com By John Richardson WE talked last week about how emerging markets continue to astound when it comes to demand, meaning that we might have to take a long and hard look at the parameters used to measure growth. Further support for this argument came from a visit […]
Abandon Fear And Plan For The New Utopia
Michael Corleone once told his fiancee, “The old way of doing things is over – even my father knows that. In ten years time, the Corleone family will be entirely legitimitate” and ten years later he was still killing lots of people. So beware of what follows… Source of picture: www.i-italy.com By John Richardson […]
Japan More Competitive Than You Might Think
Tokyo at nightSource of picture: liveworldtours.com By Malini Hariharan it is easy to write off the Japanese petrochemicals industry which has for long struggled to find a solution to the dual pressure of rising global competition and an anaemic home market. Japanese companies, once at the forefront of the Asian industry, have […]
Distorting The Outlook For 2011
Source of picture: http://www.intentblog.com By John Richardson and Malini Hariharan THE view from a particular geography, grade of polyolefin or end-use application might be distorting the outlook for 2011. In China and India and other emerging markets demand growth continues to astound and even though the rates of expansion might have slowed down […]
Wrong Assumptions Drive Shipping, C2 Investments
The goat has been got Source of picture: michaelscomments.wordpress.com By John Richardson EARLIER this week we blogged on the 25 or so ethylene carriers that could be delivered into the shipping market by 2013 and the risk this poses to freight rates. Thanks to one of our readers, Mark Mirosevic-Sorgo – managing director of […]
Chandra Asri And TriPolyta To Merge
By John Richardson The consolidation talked about in Indonesia for more than ten years – that between cracker operator and polyethylene (PE) producer Chandra Asri and polypropylene (PP) producer TriPolyta – is finally set to happen by January next year. Now it will be up to the companies to make the synergies work with the most […]
Ethylene Freight Rates Head For Collapse
“If I didn’t care what happens to you….” Source of picture: www.sydbarrett.com By John Richardson AS many as 25 new ethylene vessels could be in operation by 2013 as a result of what one shipping industry source told the blog was “irresponsible shipping brokers and consultants talking up the market”. He predicted that the […]
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