By John Richardson I HAVE long admired the work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, who studied how people adjust to death and set out her analysis in the ground-breaking book, On Death and Dying. In this, she identified how people usually go through five different stages of response to death – Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and finally […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Another Distracting Myth: Cheaper Oil Good For Growth
By John Richardson AS PEOPLE have frantically repositioned themselves over the last few months, one of the counter-arguments to the New Normal is that cheaper oil is a good thing for the global economy. The rationale behind this claim is that the drop in crude will boost consumer spending through cheaper gasoline and diesel etc. […]
A Message To Davos: Why Populism Is On The Rise
By John Richardson POLITICAL populism, or perhaps more accurately demagoguery, is a major concern amongst the great and good who are gathered for this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. They are worried, according to the Financial Times, about the “US building a wall to keep out immigrants, Britain leaving the EU or anybody […]
Oil In Free Fall: What It Means For Petchems
By John Richardson AS crude heads to perhaps as little as $10-15/bbl, you have evaluate the immediate, or first order, effects on the petrochemicals industry and then move to stage two – what it means in the longer term. Right now, you have to worry about the potential for raw material inventory losses up and […]
Global Polyethylene Priced Off US Ethane. Why Not?
By John Richardson WHEN you have spent several billion dollars building a brand new US steam cracker complex, you will of course do everything to maximise operating rates to pay back your debts, even if it means pricing off your advantaged raw-material supply. So why not new US polyethylene (PE) supply priced-off ethane, rather than […]
Your Short Term Guide To Crude Markets
By John Richardson IF you are a petrochemicals sales and marketing executive you probably came back to work after your end-of-year holidays feeling a little bit more optimistic. This was the result of the rebound in oil markets resulting from the Saudi Arabian and Iranian ongoing geopolitical tensions. But, of course, as we all know, […]
Collapsing Crude: What To Do Next
This is business critical now, as the new global economic crisis, centred on China and other emerging markets, gathers momentum. Putting aside the specific monumental problems represented by China, as the Financial Times pointed on Monday, the last decade has seen total emerging market debt rise from $5.4n to $24.4tn. This is equivalent to 90% […]
Oil Prices 80% Likely Not To Return To Previous Levels
By John Richardson In yesterday’s world the ongoing geopolitical tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran would have resulted in a sustained rally in oil prices. But this rally lasted barely couple of days as a result of persistently high US oil stocks and more alarming data emerging from China, such as the biggest-ever decline in […]
The Opportunities For 2016 And Beyond Are Huge
A happy festive season and all the best for the New Year to my readers. What should chemicals companies do to be successful in 2016 and beyond. What follows will help. I am taking a break from blogging, but will be back on 3 January. By John Richardson WHAT have we learnt from the last […]
Polyethylene The “Last Man Standing”. For How Much Longer?
By John Richardson POLYETHYLENE (PE) remains almost the “last man standing”. Whereas most of the other chemicals and polymers markets in China, including phenol, polyvinyl chloride and purified terephthalic acid, are mired in almost vanished imports and poor profitability because of severe oversupply, PE appears to be fine. Take the latest import and local production […]
Jump to page: