XI Jinping (see picture), the country’s new president, is being described either as a nationalist, who has set China on an overly aggressive course or as someone who will skilfully and harmoniously guide the nation through major domestic and international reforms. According to Robert Lawrence Kuhn , an international investment banker and author, Xi’s nationalism, or […]
Asian Chemical Connections
The 10th ICIS Innovation Awards
The deadline of 3 July is closing in fast for entries to the 10th ICIS Innovation Awards, designed to reward innovation, environmental advances and sustainability in the global chemical industry. If you want a chance to win extensive coverage in ICIS Chemical Business and receive industry-wide recognition for your hard-won innovations as they enter the […]
Demographics And Shale Gas
By John Richardson GLOBAL shale resources are large enough to cover more than a decade of oil consumption, writes the FT in this article, quoting the US Department of Energy. And as my colleague Nigel Davis writes in this, as usual, excellent Insight article, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has upwardly revised its estimate of worldwide recoverable […]
China’s Auto Sales Challenge
By John Richardson THE assumption behind big investments in auto capacity in China – and in butadiene, synthetic rubber, polypropylene (PP) and other chemicals and polymer capacities linked to the auto industry – is that, eventually, Western levels of car ownership will be achieved. But Hou Yankun, head of China Equity Research and head of […]
Everything Is Going To Plan
By John Richardson So far so good – everything is going to plan. The flash Markit/HSBC China Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for May fell to 49.6, slipping under the 50-point level demarcating expansion from contraction for the first since October last year and sending Asian financial markets sharply lower. But, crucially, as Reuters pointed out in this article, […]
China’s Cancer Villages
Source of picture: Wikispaces. By John Richardson CHINA has as many as 400 “cancer villages”, with many of the cancer clusters being blamed on the chemicals industry. Much of the nation’s countryside – the source of China’s food supply – is contaminated with toxic chemicals, it is claimed. Experts estimate that there has been an 80% increase […]
A Note From Beijing
Dear all THE blog is very busy this week, travelling to Beijing and then Shanghai, and so apologies if our posts are a great deal shorter than usual. But just to show that we haven’t forgotten you, this is a very interesting article worth reading on China’s leadership challenges.
Xi Jingping’s Challenges
By John Richardson XI Jinping, who formally became China’s president last week during the National People’s Congress meeting, faces enormous challenges. Life is, for example, pretty grim for hundreds of millions of people in China. Many have lost out on the country’s “economic miracle” because a hugely disproportionate share of the country’s wealth has ended […]
Less Bling, Please
Source of picture: Luxepost.com By John Richardson CHINA’S industrial output has had the weakest start to a year since 2009 and retail sales growth has slowed, according to this article from Bloomberg. New local-currency loans for February were also lower than the estimates of 27 out of 28 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey. […]
Innovation: No More Time Left To Lose
Source of picture: http://whyfiles.org/ By John Richardson MY colleague Nigel Davis has written an excellent Insight article which highlights how some chemicals companies are seeking to respond to changing patterns. As we have discussed before, Bayer Material Science is adapting its portfolio of products in response to the megatrends – demographics, energy conservation, […]
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