By John Richardson CHINA IS gradually getting back to work, but only gradually because the government is trying to carefully calibrate the release of tens of millions of people from quarantine without triggering a second wave of infections. The way that China has tackled the disease has been nothing short of heroic. Small and medium-sized […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Petrochemical feedstock purchasing managers: What to think about and what do next
By John Richardson ALL THE old assumptions about how oil, feedstock and petrochemicals markets work need to quite literally be thrown out of the window. No old model or way of thinking will work anymore until the crisis is over. The permanent changes that will take place in markets, and there will be many, is […]
Vital work to maintain petrochemicals supply for essential services must continue
By John Richardson INDUSTRY associations around the world are lobbying governments about the importance of the petrochemical industry for vital services beyond just the obvious production of hygiene products, face masks, pill bottles and disposable plastic bed sheets etc. This vital work needs to continue as the petrochemicals business is not fully understood by many […]
Polyethylene: How to plan sensibly as we face threat of new Global Depression
By John Richardson I SINCERELY want to help you guys. That’s what I am here for. To this end, here is another warning not to heed what I believe is wrong advice about the polyethylene (PE) demand being to some extent immune from an economic crisis that Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister, yesterday said […]
Coronavirus may take as much as two years to be brought under control
By John Richardson The only honest answer is that none of us know how events will turn out because of the rapid pace and unpredictable nature of the coronavirus crisis. As of writing, for instance, India had just gone announced a temporary lockdown But petrochemicals companies must still try and predict the future otherwise they […]
European polyethylene and coronavirus: Panic buying versus the real demand outlook
By John Richardson NOW that the epicentre of the virus has moved to Europe, we need to think through what this means for the region’s petrochemicals demand. As usual, I am going to focus on polyethylene (PE). But what follows can also be applied to other polymers that are heavily used in packaging applications such […]
Despite China returning to work, polyethylene growth prospects continue to decline
By John Richardson ONE of the enduring false views out there is that China’s economy will entirely recover later this year once the coronavirus crisis has been brought under control. Support for this misguided picture of events has built over the last couple of weeks as the number of new infections in China has declined. […]
Sustained collapse in oil prices: Effect on petrochemicals and the global economy
By John Richardson IT COULD be a game of chicken designed to pull Russia back to the negotiating table and the Saudis might win the game. This is how you could be interpreting the Saudi decision to raise oil production and offer aggressive discounts to customers following last week’s failure by OPEC to agree cuts […]
Coronavirus: No recovery in petrochemicals likely until end-2020 and here are ten reasons why
By John Richardson HERE IS your print-out-and-keep 10-point guide, summarising the key themes I’ve covered over the last two weeks with important updates. I hope this helps your petrochemicals business in its planning process. Before we begin, I am afraid to say that we have probably lost a year’s worth of demand growth.Growth likely to […]
Coronavirus: China ethylene glycols demand could fall by 1.2m tonnes as imports also diminish
By John Richardson IN GEORGE ORWELL’S magnificent parody of communism, Animal Farm, he writes; “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’”. So it goes in petrochemicals value chains. All the chains have been affected by the coronavirus outbreak. They all share the commonality of a big loss over at least […]