By John Richardson CHINA’S decision yesterday to increase the amount banks must set aside as reserves and two interbank interest rate rises in the space of a week are designed to tighten monetary conditions as worries grow over overheating and inflation. Lending reached Yuan 600bn ($88bn) in the first week of this year, not far […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Asean-China FTA: Indonesian drama unfolds
By Malini Hariharan Eight years after agreeing to the Asean-China FTA (ACFTA) and a few days after its implementation the Indonesian government has succumbed to industry pressure to ask the Asean Council to renegotiate tariff reductions on 228 categories of goods across eight industrial sectors. In return, it has offered to accelerate implementation of tariff […]
China Inflation Threat To Chemicals
Sky-high living costs? Source of picture: www.shanghaiist.com By John Richardson CHINA’S imports surged by 55.9 per cent last December, raising concerns among chemicals traders and producers that this points to increasing inflationary pressure and a possible interest-rate hike later this year. The country’s current official borrowing rate stands at 5.31%. “The government has […]
China’s Credit Growth Versus the West
By John Richardson THE BIG gap in credit growth between China and the developed world has been thrown into further relief by recently released data – raising inflationary concerns in the world’s most important economy, while emphasising how rich-world countries remain on government life-support systems. Broad money supply growth was a huge 30% in China […]
Reliance ups LyondellBasell valuation
By Malini Hariharan LyondellBasell’s aggressive moves to convince creditors to approve its own reorganisation plan have drawn a reaction from Reliance Industries. A source familiar with developments confirms that Reliance has raised its valuation of LyondellBasell to $13.5bn, up from $12bn and a letter has been sent to LyondellBasell. But the Wall Street Journal reports […]
Some more surprises for polyolefins
By Malini Hariharan The Wednesday post on this blog highlighted some of the unexpected turns that the Asian polyolefins market has been taking. There have been more developments over the last two days that are likely to influence markets in the short term. • ICIS news reports that Sabic will significantly cut its January and […]
Polymers start the year on a robust note, but how long will it last?
By Malini Hariharan and John Richardson Expect the unexpected and you probably stand a good chance of making money in the polymer market. Defying expectations of a slowdown in demand ahead of the Chinese new year in February markets have started 2010 with a bang – material is short and prices are steadily moving up. […]
Cash Will Remain King in 2010
Still too crowded… Source of picture:www.tripadvisor.com By John Richardson Dear Readers – Welcome Back. Having spent the last two weeks lying on Western Australian beaches, drinking beer and reading books on European history – while also building sand castles etc with my three-year-old son – I have given little thought to chemicals. But […]
No option but to bet on China
By Malini Hariharan Even as market players celebrate the finish of what has been an unexpectedly good year there are not many who expect a repeat performance. A key concern is Chinese demand which saved the industry in 2009. A massive government stimulus package boosted domestic consumption and imports of a wide range of petrochemicals. […]
Asian PE, PP face a weak start to 2010
Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) producers expect trade to pick up only from the second quarter of 2010 when restocking activity will resume, writes our colleague Bee Lin. Chinese importers are unlikely to build stocks before the Lunar New Year holidays which are in February. Operating rates at plastic units would also be low during […]
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