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 […]
Asian Chemical Connections
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 […]
The Worst Things Get The Better They Are
By John Richardson THE more that China’s economy weakens, the greater the hope of a recovery in the second half of this year. This type of thinking was in evidence last week. The release of a raft of disappointing economic data for April boosted the confidence of some people in the petrochemicals industry that China’s […]
China’s Inflation Challenge
By John Richardson In our third post on the context behind last week’s steep fall in polyolefins prices,and the prospects for a recovery, we look at inflation – one of China’s numerous economic challenges…..I NFLATION remains a major threat in China, hence the government is unable to make the cuts in interest rates necessary to […]
Demand Is The Thing
By John Richardson In the second of a series of three blog posts, we gauge the reaction of the market to last week’s sharp decline in polyolefin prices. Yesterday, we focused on the Middle East. Today, we interview a source with a Western-headquartered global polyolefin producer. He told us: “I have a dreadful feeling that […]
Saudi Worries About China Netbacks
By John Richardson Here is the first of a three blog posts on what is happening in China’s polyolefins markets. Today, we look at the Middle East and tomorrow and Thursday we present the perspective of traders and Western-headquartered polyolefin producers. The series is in response to what we believe is a turning […]
Polyolefins And China Real Estate
By John Richardson SOME polyolefin companies continue to present an optimistic picture of markets to investors. They point to positive factors such as renewed economic stimulus in China and a recovery in auto production in Thailand following last year’s floods. But, as we said yesterday, those involved in the day-to-day grind of trying to […]
Canton Trade Fair Disappoints
By John Richardson THE total value of export orders at the latest Canton Trade Fair, which finished this weekend, declined by 4.8% compared with the previous event in October last year. This is the first decline in the value of orders at the bi-annual fair since May 2009, when the world was in the […]
MEG Continues To Struggle
By John Richardson THE above chart is a further illustration of what we believe is the wrong consensus view over China. Q1 2012 mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) imports surged by 30% compared with the same period last year, as traders bet on a sharp rebound in China’s economy. They believed all the talk of more local […]
China PE Demand Down 4 Percent
By John Richardson CHEMICALS analysts, and some senior company executives, are telling us that growth in China will bounce back in the second half of 2012. To give these forecasts some historical context, the recovery was supposed to happen in January, then February, then March, then April and now at some point in the […]
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