Victorian Britain (Source of picture: Wikimedia) By John Richardson LIFE in China can be grim, much as it was in Britain during its industrial development. In China, according to The Economist: A tenth of the country’s […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Crossing The River By Feeling The Stones
Deng Xiaoping By John Richardson ANDREW Mackenzie, in his first speech in Australia as BHP Billiton’s new chief executive, said that global demand for commodities would grow by 75% over the next 15 years, driven by continuing urbanisation in China and the growth of Asia’s middle classes. The blog wishes that it shared Mr […]
China PE Demand Boosted By New Environmental Clampdown On Recycling
By John Richardson BACK in 2009, virgin polyolefins demand growth in China was boosted by a sharp drop in imports of recycled or scrap plastic resulting from tougher enforcement of environmental regulations. Now another government crackdown on imports of scrap material, again due to environmental concerns, might have provided a further benefit to demand growth for […]
China’s Sandwich Generation Revisited
By John Richardson THE sandwich generation in China, those too rich to qualify for social housing but also too poor to pay for ridiculously-overpriced private accommodation in the first-tier cities, is becoming increasingly disillusioned. “We are really tired of claims that inflation is under control, when, in fact, the real inflation numbers are much higher […]
Europe’s Rubbish Solution
By John Richardson SHALE gas may never be a significant energy solution for Europe because the political challenges are just too great, as this article in the Financial Times points out.For example, the FT writes that: Fracking is banned in France and the Netherlands. The Dutch government scrapped a parliamentary proposal to allow fracking […]
At Least One Company Saw It Coming
By John Richardson A MAJOR petrochemicals company two years ago predicted that real Chinese GDP growth, as opposed to the “man-made” official numbers, would fall to 4% in 2013 and 2014, a source with that company told the blog. This is tremendous to hear as it means that at least one company was well ahead of […]
More Great News On China
Pollution over eastern China Source of picture: Wikimedia By John Richardson IT wasn’t the kind of news that China’s polyethylene (PE) traders wanted to reflect on over the weekend. On Friday, China’s cabinet – the State Council – announced that it had adopted 10 measures designed to improve air quality. “Many of the measures […]
Demographics And Shale Gas
By John Richardson GLOBAL shale resources are large enough to cover more than a decade of oil consumption, writes the FT in this article, quoting the US Department of Energy. And as my colleague Nigel Davis writes in this, as usual, excellent Insight article, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has upwardly revised its estimate of worldwide recoverable […]
China’s Auto Sales Challenge
By John Richardson THE assumption behind big investments in auto capacity in China – and in butadiene, synthetic rubber, polypropylene (PP) and other chemicals and polymer capacities linked to the auto industry – is that, eventually, Western levels of car ownership will be achieved. But Hou Yankun, head of China Equity Research and head of […]
China Will Do What Suits China
By John Richardson CHINA might well be in the midst of deflation caused by overcapacity in some chemicals, and in many other industries as well, but the longer-term strategic direction of reducing dependence on imports doesn’t appear to have changed. An indication of this was this story from my colleague Lilian Hua at ICIS. She […]
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