For three wonderful years, petrochemical producers have had the pricing power thanks to tight supply and demand balances and very strong growth economic growth. Now with crude close to pushing past the pyschologically important $100 a barrel barrier and construction sectors in the West slowing down on the sub-prime crisis, the polyvinyl chloride industry in […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Will free forecasting have its Wiki way?
Now, please be patient – the sting is in the tail. This could have great relevance to your business….. The industry in which I work – the media – has been decimated by the Internet with billions of dollars of earnings and hundreds of thousands of livelihoods sucked out of traditional publishing by online advertising. […]
Asia needs a recesssion
Asian industry leaders are playing lip service to the environmental crisis the world confronts . George Monbiot, the excellent author and journalist, argues that what the West needs is a recession to give the planet a breather.Asia also needs a substantial economic slowdown to give policymakers and technology developers more time.
The flawed “science” of forecasting
Maybe I’ve been to too many conferences this year, and indeed over the last decade, and have seen too many forecasts go wrong. Call me cynical, or plain wrong, but………..
Can polymers rescue the Mile High Club?
Maybe Singapore airlines has got the wrong end of the stick by trying to ban first class passengers in their new cabins in the sky from indulging in a little hanky panky. Perhaps the answer is to equip the walls of these private cabins with super sound-absorbing polymers (polyurethanes, maybe?). Any suggestions from polymer experts […]
More arguments against M-E price setting
The article below, from Sean Milmo of ICB, makes the case that the Middle East will not be able or willing to lead pricing in Europe during the next downturn because of the control that European producers will be able to exert on their home market.
The Middle East may set polyolefins pricing
This was the warning from Bob Bauman of Nexant ChemSystems at last week’s 25th Annual Petrochemical Conference in Houston, Texas. Read below for some rather gloomy predictions of where markets could be heading in 2011-12
Another great year for Asian polyolefins but……
……how long will it last is the inevitable question. Demand growth has been so strong so far this year with very little new production coming onstream that while crude oil and the price of monomers have set a floor for pricing, they no longer appear to be the main drivers behind fluctuations and increases; in […]
The world goes Upsize barmy
Standing in the queue for Starbucks (not McDonalds – no way, and my son’s going nowhere near that place) it’s so easy to opt for the half bucket-sized Grande option because, after all, we are all rich these days and anyway it costs hardly anything to “Upsize”. Walk around Starbucks and you’ll notice numerous Grande […]
Could new laws threaten your supply chain?
I am at logistics conference at the moment where the major theme is a chronically tight global container shipping market because of booming exports from China. Ports are congested, waiting times are increasing, freight rates have in some cases doubled in the last two months(for example, the Middle East-Asia route) and there is no immediate […]
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