Today, the blog is proud to announce the publication the first Chapter of its new eBook: ‘Boom, Gloom and the New Normal: how Western BabyBoomers are changing global chemical demand patterns, again’ It is co-authored with Paul Hodges of International eChem – author of the Chemicals & Economy blog. A new chapter will […]
Asian Chemical Connections
To frack or not to frack…
By Malini Hariharan …is a debate that has starting moving out of the US. A desire for energy independence has seen countries like Poland to embrace shale gas with the government welcoming US companies to quickly develop the country’s reserves, estimated at 5.3 trillion cubic metres. This would be enough to meet Poland’s annual gas […]
Misplaced Euphoria Threatens Industry
By John Richardson THE euphoria sweeping through the US petrochemicals industry seems to indicate strong support for the “supercycle” theory. Some of the comments made during the first-quarter results season certainly point that way, as does the upbeat mood of presentations made to investors over the past few months. A consensus view appears to have […]
Boom, Gloom and the New Normal
The blog is delighted to announce the title of its new eBook, jointly authored with fellow blogger, Paul Hodges. It explains how Western BabyBoomers are changing chemical demand patterns, again. We believe it will become vital reading for all those working in the global chemical industry. The first chapter of the book will be […]
Broad Commodities Retreat Hurts Chemicals
By John Richardson WE hate to say we told you so but the 15 per cent fall in oil prices last week – the steepest one-week decline in two-and-a-half years – was evidence of growing concern over the health of the global economy. And as we predicted on 12 April, last week saw a broad sell-off […]
The Chemicals Party Is Over
By John Richardson IT has been a fantastic party. Nobody expected that the drinks would last for so long, thanks to Wen Jiabao and Ben Bernanke working overtime to man the 24/7 off-licence (it is called “liquor store” in the States and a “bottle shop” in Australia). But now the market has clearly reached the top with […]
Petchems Could Enjoy Abundant Naphtha
By John Richardson THE refining industry enjoyed a golden era before the global economic crisis thanks to a booming economy and gasoline shortages caused by Hurricane Katrina. Inevitably, therefore, as is so often the case with commodity industries, too much new capacity was planned that came on-stream at the worst possible time. But recently some […]
Growing Uncertainties Cloud Chemicals Outlook
By John Richardson THE global growth outlook grows ever murkier as a result of credit tightening in China (or is the problem instead continued strong growth in lending?), inflation problems throughout Asia, possible monetary tightening in the West, the direction of oil prices and the Japanese tsunami-earthquake. We feel that this is making the rest […]
European Petchems & Future Competitiveness
By John Richardson Dear Reader We hope and pray that the nuclear crisis in Japan will be resolved and that the rebuilding process following the earthquake and tsunami can be begin. My colleagues at ICIS news are doing a comprehensive job in covering the disaster in terms of how it is affecting the petrochemicals industry […]
Japan Disaster: Immediate Petchem, Refining Impact
By John Richardson THE earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on Friday afternoon is still hard to take in. We send our sympathy to everyone connected with this disaster and just hope and pray that the rescue efforts go exceptionally well. As Japan returns to work this morning it will confront the huge cost of […]
Jump to page: