By John Richardson WE were right about China’s change of economic direction, which we identified in November 2013. We were then right about the collapse in oil prices from August 2014 onwards. And we also made the right call when we pointed out that these two events are inextricably linked. Being right in the past is, […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Manage Demand And Keep Control Of Your Business
By John Richardson CHEMICALS companies don’t always disappear when things turn bad. Ownership can instead just change hands. Reasons for this include the fact that private investors are of course always seeking to make money from any crisis. Why not buy perfectly good assets for just a few cents on each dollar of debt of […]
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 […]
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 […]
Oil At $25 Or Even Lower By The End Of This Year
By John Richardson AS most people react like a rabbit caught in a car headlight to the latest collapse in crude-oil prices, they need to take note of this: The long term average price of oil, adjusted for inflation, is only $33 a barrel. Why were so many misled into thinking that the natural price […]
Dow and DuPont Need To Prove Sceptics Wrong
By John Richardson UNLESS you live on Mars, you will have obviously read about the ground-breaking climate change deal reached in Paris over the weekend. Sure, it will only come into force if 55 countries responsible for at least 55% of emissions ratify the deal. And we know that in the US in particular, given […]
Dow And DuPont: How A Merger Could Work
By John Richardson DOW Chemical and DuPont are companies with tremendous histories. It is no exaggeration to say that they have helped to build the American economy, right from the early days of Henry Herbert Dow and Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. Their innovations have not only created wealth for America, their employees and their shareholders […]
Autos Material Science: 180 Degree Change For Petchems
By John Richardson HERE is an example of how the links between the petrochemicals and polymers business and the autos industry have long worked: In the 1980s, propylene was a very low value co-product of naphtha and other liquids cracking. You always make around half a tonne of propylene for every one tonne of […]
CEOs Need To Get Rid Of The “Fear Factor”
It now makes sense to reduce my number of blog posts to three a week – on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – as the “argument” stage of the New Normal is much closer to being over. Far more people than was the case just 12 months ago recognise that our view of the world stacks […]
Cheap Oil Will Help You Sell A Million Tonnes Of Ethylene
By John Richardson TOMORROW’S winners will be those who recognise that oil, oil products such as gasoline and diesel and chemicals markets have changed for good. They will understand that this has generated a whole range of new opportunities to make a profit and to sell huge volumes of product. These two things are obviously […]
Jump to page: