By John Richardson CHINA’S 15.3 percent increase in exports in May, far greater than most analysts had expected, is being interpreted as a sign of the country’s enduring economic strength. This is certainly good news for China amidst all the other negative news. But to what extent is it good news for the US, the […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China Rate Cut
By John Richardson CHINA surprised economists and markets with a 25 basis point cut in benchmark lending rates on Thursday. This was the first rate cut since the economic crisis of 2008. The cut was seen as indicating that the economy is slowing down faster than had been previously thought. Industrial production for May, due […]
More Of The Same Won’t Work
By John Richardson MORE of the same won’t solve China’s problems. “Economists worry that an influx of new cash (as part of China’s new economic stimulus package) will exacerbate some of the market distortions in areas that are already heavily state-dominated,” wrote the Financial Times, in an article on Tuesday. The steel sector is an […]
BASF Highlights Changes In Growth
Martin Brudermüller Source of picture: BASF By John Richardson “THE struggle over China’s future direction seems to be harder fought than we had imagined,” said BASF vice chairman Martin Brudermüller last Thursday, in a German newspaper interview. “There are very intensive discussions being held in China about the direction the country should take. […]
Stimulus Nonsense Raises Hopes
By John Richardson EARNINGS estimates for South Korean petrochemical companies will have to be cut by 50 percent for the full year 2012, said an industry observer. “It is quite clear that the first quarter was dreadful for the South Koreans and the second quarter will probably be even worse,” he added. There was a […]
European Firms Assess China Exit
By John Richardson CHINA’S rising labour costs and a worsening regulatory environment had resulted in almost a quarter of European firms to consider relocating their activities elsewhere, said a survey by the EU Chamber of Commerce and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. Twenty-two percent of 557 respondents said they may move investment to other developing economies, […]
China PE Demand Falls Six Percent
By John Richardson The 6% decline in apparent polyethylene (PE) demand in China from January to April this year, compared with the same periods in 2011 and 2010, underlines what market participants have been telling the blog for many months. The above chart also further emphasises how, in a weak market, the Middle East is […]
No Big China Relief
By John Richardson Wen Jiabao re-emphasised at the weekend that China’s economic policy would be tweaked rather than radically overhauled because inflation, despite declining further in April, remains a major threat. Anybody hoping for a stimulus package on the scale of that which was introduced in late 2008 is therefore likely to be disappointed. And […]
APIC: A Sense Of Shock
By John Richardson ANOTHER theme that emerged from last week’s Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was the shock at the extent of the price declines in the key China market. In polyolefins, the slump in pricing has been the most pronounced during a period when the consensus opinion was that […]
APIC: US Feedstock and Asia Optimism
By John Richardson FEEDSTOCK advantages in the US and the continued economic rise of Asia were some of the themes of last week’s Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Steam crackers are being planned in abundance in the US. As much as 7.65m tonne/year of new ethane-based ethylene capacity could be on-stream […]
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