By John Richardson ONE of the research papers produced ahead of this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos highlighted demographics as one of the key reasons for rising working and middle class discontent in the West. In an exact echo of the arguments that Paul Hodges and I have been putting forward since […]
Asian Chemical Connections
India’s Demonitisation: Measuring The Real Impact
By John Richardson FOR those interested in what demonitisation might mean for Indian polyethylene (PE) demand in the calendar years 2016 and 2017, the above two charts will be useful. The top chart shows our base case for Indian demand growth, and for operating rates, from our Supply & Demand database. This was drawn up before Narendra Modi’s […]
A World In Crisis: Tackling Basic Needs Is The Solution
By John Richardson ALL SORTS of experts keep telling us that identifying the world’s problems is incredibly complex. But it, is in, fact, incredibly simple – all you have to do is to meet Basic Needs such as coping with ageing populations and providing sufficient water, electricity, shelter, healthcare and education. Satisfying these needs does, however, require the […]
Chemicals Companies Must Be The Solution And Not The Problem
By John Richardson MORE than 40 years after the launch of the first universal recycling symbol, only 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling. When additional value losses in sorting and reprocessing are factored in, only 5% of material value is retained for a subsequent use. Plastics that do get recycled are mostly recycled […]
China Becomes Dominant Superpower: Implications For Petchems
By John Richardson CHINA can become the world’s No1 Superpower, replacing the US, if it can rise to challenges such as these: Asia needs US$8trn of investment in the decade to 2020 to deal with its infrastructure deficit. As countries with urban populations expand, demand for transport, logistics and utilities will place a major burden […]
Trumponomics And A Global Recession
By John Richardson FIRST of all there was no chance he would win the nomination. No chance at all. Then nearly all the election pundits said it was almost impossible that he could beat Hillary Clinton because he had such a narrow Electoral College path to the White House. Now we are being told that […]
Stunning Agreement On HFCs Offers Huge Opportunities
By John Richardson THE DELHI bank manager’s priority was to make sure his son got through medical school. He obviously therefore didn’t have that much time or energy to worry about global warming before he bought a hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)-fuelled air-conditioning unit. The aim was to instead make sure his son could stay awake and night […]
Global Trade: What The New Dynamics Mean For Petchems
By John Richardson THE result of this year’s US presidential election may well be determined by one issue – trade – as yesterday’s first presidential debate perhaps indicated. These are incredibly dangerous times for the global economy, and with it, of course, the chemicals industry. It is not just in the US, but also in […]
What Exclusion From China’s One Belt, One Road Looks Like
By John Richardson IS the whole world really turning again free trade? No, if you consider the potential improvement in trade flows between the 65 mainly developing countries which make up China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative. What we could instead see is the creation of the world’s biggest free-trade bloc, accounting for 40% […]
Emerging Markets: 67.7 More Years To Catch Up With US
By John Richardson IF I had a dollar in my pocket for every time I had read or heard the phrase “the rise of the middle classes in the emerging markets” in the context that this was a tremendous opportunity for the global economy, I would be pretty rich by now. And I would be […]
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