By John Richardson POLYETHYLENE (PE) prices crept up by $10-50/tonne for the week ending 22 February, according to ICIS pricing. But, as the above chart shows, integrated high-density PE variable cost margins in Southeast and Northeast Asia remained very weak, and were way below all the other regions – again, up until the week ending […]
Asian Chemical Connections
HSBC: China 2013 Polyethylene Market Has Peaked
By John Richardson A NEW report from HSBC backs up our concerns that the post-Chinese New Year polyethylene (PE) will be weaker than in December-January. The bank is with us in thinking that the stronger markets over the last two months have been driven by: *Lagging indicators such as strong export and import data and […]
Filtering Out The Noise
By John Richardson ONE should be careful about reading too much into the above margins for February as, of course, there was very little trading activity because of Chinese New Year (CNY), whilst oil and therefore naphtha prices increased. But the poor performances in December and January in Southeast and Northeast Asia, despite the rally […]
Crude Oil Price Risks Escalate
By John Richardson FINANCIAL speculators began to play an increasing role in crude-oil markets following liberalisation of financial trading rules, signed into law by Bill Clinton in 2000, as we argued in chapter 3 of our e-book, Boom Gloom & The New Normal. The disconnect between real supply and demand for crude and the influence […]
1.5m tonnes Of New Asian PE Supply In 2013
By John Richardson SOME 1.5m tonnes of new polyethylene (PE) supply will arrive in the Asian market during 2013 at a time of very uncertain and fragile demand, a source with a global producer has told the blog. A large amount of new polypropylene (PP) supply is also expected to enter the market. “Even if there […]
NATPET Warns On Saudi Gas Increase
By John Richardson SAUDI ARABIA’S National Petrochemical Industrial Co (NATPET) has gone public over an issue that has worried Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) petrochemical producers for several years now: The erosion of the GCC’s competitive advantage over the US. “There has been a migration of investment to the US that is a very clear threat […]
US Threat To Asian Polyolefins
So far so good…lack of arbitrage in 2012 By John Richardson Despite a strong recovery in China’s polyethylene (PE) prices and sales over the last month-and-a-half, producers are viewing the coming year with great trepidation. One of the wild cards is how the US producers behave in 2013, as we also discussed in November. Faced […]
China Polyolefins Recovery Continues…..
…..For Now By John Richardson RELATIVE to most of 2012 – when China’s polyolefins market was in dire straits – November, December and early January have been excellent for traders who took the right positions. At least one producer has also reporting a strong recovery in sales. “I thought there would be a mini-rebound […]
SABIC’S Al-Mady Issues Europe Warning
By John Richardson MOHAMED Al-Mady, the CEO of SABIC, told the Financial Times yesterday that he worries about Europe losing out on petrochemical investments because of its reluctance to embrace shale gas. “Some European companies already made the decision to go into shale gas, so naturally when they do not there will not be development,” he […]
US Manufacturing Exam Question
A lot more than just the standard Model T.,,, Source of picture: cCSU Archv/Everett/Rex Features By John Richardson THE question on my exam paper this Monday morning is what this outstanding article by the author, Charles Fishman, in The Atlantic magazine, means for the petrochemical industry. We have all become used to the idea of the […]
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