By John Richardson LAST year was a tremendous year for polyethylene (PE) exporters to China, according to data provided by US-based International Trader Publications, the US-based trade data and analytics service. They conclude that China’s imports of high-density polyethylene (HPDE) and low-density PE (LDPE) posted strong gains. Volumes for 2013 were up 18% and 10%, respectively, versus […]
Asian Chemical Connections
ExxonMobil, Energy Efficiency And Innovation
By John Richardson SAVING money through energy efficiency, along with innovation, will be two of the keys to success in the New Normal because demand-growth patterns will be very different than during the Supercycle. The suspension, which guaranteed success for everybody, has gone. We are therefore going to see some creative destruction amongst chemicals and […]
China’s Rough Ride To Sustainable Growth
By John Richardson IT makes no sense whatsoever to think that the transition to another type of growth in China will inevitably be so smooth that there is hardly any disruption to the global economy, and, with it, of course, the chemicals industry. The issues facing China are too complex and too myriad for the […]
China Is Sending In The Bulldozers
By John Richardson YOU can spend as much time as you like crunching petrochemicals supply and demand data, but in the end, what will matter the most in China in determining the strength of markets during 2014 will, surely, be the availability of credit. This was starkly underlined by this New York Times article, which […]
Australia, China And “Social Accounting”
By John Richardson WESTERN Australia is still in the midst of the tail end of a golden economic sweet spot, thanks to a once-in-many-generations resources boom. People are not only benefiting from the fantastic money that is being made by working in the iron ore, gold mines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants. All those […]
3D Printing Likely To Change Just About Everything
By John Richardson 3D printing will very probably force manufacturers, including those who make chemicals and polymers, to build entirely new business models. Here is why: The young in Western societies will be poorer because of less aggregate demand as a result of the retirement of the Babyboomers. They will need to save a lot […]
Western Demand Still Weaker
By John Richardson AS the euphoria over the Fed’s measured tapering echoes through global equity markets, many people at certain points on the continuum – which we described in detail earlier this week – will be happy. Perhaps for the next few quarters, stock markets will remain buoyant because of the measured tapering of bonds purchases and the prospect […]
China and India: When Over-Investment Is A Good Thing
By John Richardson WHEN is over-investment a good thing? This was another question the blog was left pondering after a good conversation with a Beijing-based training delegate during ICIS Training’s recent China Seminar in Bangkok. She made the point that China builds roads, bridges and railways, which ends up “seeding” or developing demand in less-developed […]
Jokes Don’t Keep You Healthy
By John Richardson “I FEEL like I’m living in clouds of smog,” Zheng Qiaoyun, a Shanghai resident who kept her 6-month-old son at home told the UK’s Guardian newspaper. “I have a headache, I’m coughing, and it’s hard to breathe on my way to my office.” The reason was another pollution scare in China, this […]
Credit Tightening The Key For China In 2014
By John Richardson WE have been on a magical mystery tour during the second of half 2013 in an effort to discover what has really driven the 14% year-on-year increase in polyethylene (PE) apparent demand in China in January-August – the latest data that is available to us. Apparent demand is imports plus domestic production. […]
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