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Asian Chemical Connections

Honestly, Nobody Still Has A Clue

By John Richardson JUST as the West was lucky, so was China. The Chinese economy was also buoyed by the Babyboomers, and by its 2001 admission to the World Trade Organisation that enabled it to greatly increase its role as the workshop of the world. This came at the cost of impoverished factory workers, environmental […]

Asian Demographics Change Demand Patterns

THIS blog was once criticised for devoting too much time to the big picture – e.g. politics, economics and demographics – one of the major themes of our free e-book, Boom, Gloom & The New Normal. We beg to differ. While studying chemical-plant operating rates, new capacities, feedstock advantages and logistics etc are, of course, […]

The Suspension Has Gone

By John Richardson WHAT a week it’s been when, of course, politics has trumped everything else and has challenged the view of those who believe that demand will take care of itself. Demand did take care of itself during the Supercycle, but that is now over for good. China no longer has the comfort blanket of […]

Tackling The SOEs

“The state advances as the private sector retreats…” The table below shows the size of China state-owned enterprises versus some other corporate giants. Source of table: The Economist. ICBC is the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.    By John Richardson In the second of our series of blog posts ahead of this week’s 18th […]

Planning For New Growth Patterns

By John Richardson “Have you noticed that your parents spend less money than you do?” asks Merryn Somerset Webb in this Financial Times article. She agrees with us that the answer is, of course, “Yes”. This very neatly brings the issue down to a personal level, one that all of us can relate to, and […]

The BRICS Fallacy

By John Richardson THE above chart, from a new Research Note released by fellow blogger Paul Hodges, exposes the fallacy that BRICS and emerging-market growth can by themselves rescue the global economy. And, as we have highlighted before on this blog, there are no long-term guarantees that China, the big driver of BRICS growth, will continue […]

World Heading For L-Shaped Recovery

Mr Bernanke, please take note By John Richardson The recovery is always six months away and so while most people have written-off the first half of next year, the hope is that by H2 everything will be back to normal. But as fellow blogger Paul Hodges points out in this video, which he further underlines […]

Dow and DuPont Make Major Job Cuts

Dupont’s Ellen Kullman   By John Richardson Dow Chemical’s decision to cut 2,400 jobs, as it posted a 32% drop in earnings per share, was the result of what CEO Andrew Liveris said was difficult conditions that “may have extended staying power, as the new reality is that we are operating in a slow-growth and […]

China GDP Growth 4-5% in 2013-2020

Canton Trade Fair. Source of picture: http://www.vatti-china.com/News/83.htm   By John Richardson IT would be nice to believe that the improved mood at this week’s Canton Trade Fair represents a long-term turnaround in China’s economic direction. This reflects a 9.9% increase in overall exports in September, much higher than the 5.5% median estimate in a Bloomberg […]

No Eurozone Miracle Cure

Source of picture: Wikipedia   By John Richardson THE eurozone hasn’t been rescued by the programme of sovereign bond purchases, announced a month ago by Mario Draghi. Wolfgang Munchau, in this excellent article in the Financial Times, explains why. This article is worth printing out and pinning on your office wall as a reminder that […]

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