By John Richardson EVERYONE should read the following section from this Economist article with great concern. Central bank stimulus might well be doing more harm than good. “When Americans borrow money to buy a car or a house, their debts are often repackaged as the backing for a bond,” writes the Economist. “Before 2007 investors […]
Asian Chemical Connections
US Energy Supply: Morning In America
Source: ICIS Chemical Business By John Richardson SEVEN grassroots crackers are now being planned in the US, along with numerous ethylene derivatives facilities (see the above table). The mood at last month’s the 38th American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) International Petrochemical meeting (IPC) in San Antonio, Texas, was incredibly buoyant on record current […]
The Real Economies Set To Dominate Q2
By John Richardson Sometimes a picture is worth many thousands of words. The above chart, supplied by one of the blog’s resources analyst contacts in Perth, Western Australia, neatly illustrates the dangerous divergence between real ecoomies and financial markets. As the Nikkei 225 has surged, Arabian Gulf very large crude carrier (VLCC) freight rates to […]
Post-War Fabric Of Europe Under Threat
The excellent article below from Paul Taylor at Reuters, which with his permission we publish in full below, describes how the European crisis is far from over, despite the hopes of financial markets following Mario Draghi’s pledge “to whatever it takes” last year. The crisis is, in fact, getting worse. 18 March 2013, 20:39:26 | Paul […]
The First Quarter Financial Results Dilemma
By John Richardson EUROPEAN olefins markets have turned decidedly bearish, according to my ICIS colleague, Nel Weddle. “Although the lack of pre-buying in February ahead of a much talked-about increase for March contract prices had been deemed a bearish signal, the one positive was that, up until now, demand levels were fairly stable,” wrote Nel, […]
China Higher-Value Processors Exert More Pressure
By John Richardson ALTHOUGH overall Chinese polyethylene (PE) demand, as we feared would happen, has fallen back to Q1-Q3 2012 levels (current sentiment suggests that it could be even lower), higher-value segments of the industry continue to do very well. It is, therefore, worth reflecting again in more detail on comments made by a source […]
China NPC Underlines Inflation Focus
The course of true love never runs smooth…..Happy China couples get divorced and then plan to remarry in order to avoid new property tax Source of picture: Quirky China News/Rex Features By John Richardson China will see “large inflation pressure in the second half of the year,” said a People’s Bank of China official on the […]
Death By A Thousand Cuts
By John Richardson COST cutting and disciplined operating rates have been two of the factors that have helped maintain European cracker and polyethylene (PE) profitability at pretty healthy levels since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. So too has the European cluster concept, where producers can share ethylene via pipelines and where […]
China’s Numbers Game
By John Richardson YET more problems with Chinese economic statistics have emerged, casting doubt over the idea that an economic hard landing was avoided in 2012 – and that there was a strong rebound in the fourth quarter. “Official data on China’s gross domestic product show the slowdown in growth in the last two years […]
China SMEs Under More Strain
Source of picture: Rex Features By John Richardson WE are worried that the recovery in Asia’s chemicals and polymer markets may not be sustained. One of our biggest concerns is that China’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which make up 60% of the economy and are responsible for 80% of employment, are under more […]
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