The January-September 2022 multiple of BFOE crude prices per barrel over CFR Japan naphtha prices per tonne averaged just 7.9. The lowest multiple so far this year was 6.9 in August. The January-September 2022 average was the lowest annual average since our naphtha price assessments began in March 1990.
Asian Chemical Connections
Success in the new HDPE world: Tactics must be accompanied by a whole new strategy
By John Richardson TACTICALLY, as the first chart below tells us, using just high-density polyethylene (HDPE) as an example (the same applies to other grades of PE and polypropylene), it is obvious what the major exporters in the Middle East and elsewhere must do as China’s self-sufficiency increases. The exporters need to focus on import […]
China PP spreads data continue to show no recovery, weakest market since at least 2003
UNTIL WE SEE a recovery in China PP-naphtha spreads during around a 12-month period to close to long-term annual averages, there will have been no complete rebound in the market. The spread so far this year at just $264/tonne is 41% lower than the previous lowest year of $447/tonne in 2012.
Global PE and PP indexes Week Two: Asian prices recover as Europe declines continue
THESE ARE STILL extraordinary times in global polyolefins markets. Although the great equalisation has begun as pricing in most of the rest of the world falls towards Chinese levels, price premiums over China remain historically very high. There are thus still strong opportunities for exporters to make good netbacks in markets other than China.
European PE and PP: Energy cost and demand crisis gathers momentum as pricing falls closer to China levels
The chart shows European
dependence on Russian gas compared with country-by-country percentages of the region’s total PE capacity, Germany is the standout risk country as it has a nearly 50% reliance on Russia for its gas supplies with a total of more than 70% of Europe’s PE capacities across the three grades. In the case of the Netherlands, it is the location for just under 40% of capacities with its dependence on Russian gas at around 20%.
China LDPE demand in 2022 could fall by 8%, which would be worst year since 1990
Annualised January-June China LDPE data only indicated a 4% decline in full-year demand. What a difference a month has made. The January-July numbers point to an 8% fall in demand this year. This would be the worst annual fall in growth since 1990.
If you think this is a typical chemicals downcycle, think again
THERE IS A FEELING out there that the chemicals and polymers industry is undergoing a typical downcycle that will last a few years, followed by yet another spectacular fly-up in margins. But I believe a great deal more is happening beyond the usual cycles of over-building followed by under-building.
The rules of the chemicals game are changing as companies pay the penalty for “growth for growth’s sake”
Because companies in all manufacturing and service sectors haven’t been adequately charged for the natural resources they use, and the damage they cause to the environment, we face the risks of catastrophic climate change and more plastic in the oceans than fish.
Global chemicals: What I believe our industry must do in response to a deep and complex crisis
I WORRY that we face a crisis deeper and more complex than any of us have seen before because of the confluence of geopolitics, demographics, the changing nature of the Chinese economy as Common Prosperity reforms accelerate, China’s rising chemicals and polymers self-sufficiency, the high levels of global inflation with all its causes, and, last but certainly not least, climate change.
Europe’s gas crisis: the implications for global chemicals
GEOPOLITICS IS, I believe, just one aspect of a crisis facing the chemicals industry that is deeper and more complex than anything we have faced before.
Front mind right now in geopolitics is Ukraine-Russia and the gas-supply crisis facing Europe,
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