By John Richardson EVERYWHERE you look across China’s petrochemical markets the story is the same as in polyethylene (PE): Exceptionally weak demand during a time of the year when demand should be good. Take purified terephthalic acid (PTA) as an example. “Asia’s purified PTA spot prices fell in the week ended 15 March on reflection of […]
Asian Chemical Connections
The First Quarter Financial Results Dilemma
By John Richardson EUROPEAN olefins markets have turned decidedly bearish, according to my ICIS colleague, Nel Weddle. “Although the lack of pre-buying in February ahead of a much talked-about increase for March contract prices had been deemed a bearish signal, the one positive was that, up until now, demand levels were fairly stable,” wrote Nel, […]
China Demand Worse Than Just Before CNY
By John Richardson CHINA’S demand for polyethylene (PE) is lower than immediately ahead of the February Chinese New Year (CNY) break, said a Singapore-based polyolefins trader. “For demand to be less than just before the New Year, when most traders had already pulled out of the market to avoid cargoes being stranded at ports during […]
Sinopec A Litmus Test For Reform
By John Richardson CHINA’s new leaders are under increasing pressure to do something about the dreadful pollution that blights the lives of hundreds of millions of people. One Shanghai resident told the blog, “The air quality is so bad here I have taken up smoking again. I figured that as my health was already in […]
The Attention Span Of Commodity Markets
By John Richardson PARTICIPANTS in commodity and financial markets sometimes appear to have very short attention spans. But they are merely doing their jobs by seeking to stretch out rallies as long as possible through claiming everything that was being discussed a few months, weeks or even days ago is suddenly invalid. (see the above […]
1.5m tonnes Of New Asian PE Supply In 2013
By John Richardson SOME 1.5m tonnes of new polyethylene (PE) supply will arrive in the Asian market during 2013 at a time of very uncertain and fragile demand, a source with a global producer has told the blog. A large amount of new polypropylene (PP) supply is also expected to enter the market. “Even if there […]
China Polyolefins Recovery Continues…..
…..For Now By John Richardson RELATIVE to most of 2012 – when China’s polyolefins market was in dire straits – November, December and early January have been excellent for traders who took the right positions. At least one producer has also reporting a strong recovery in sales. “I thought there would be a mini-rebound […]
Beneath the China PMI Hype
By John Richardson A LOT of stock market excitement, and perhaps a recovery in petrochemicals prices (more next week when everyone is back in action), has greeted the release of China’s purchasing managers’ indices for December. The official PMI held steady at 50.6%, while the final HSBC PMI came in at 51.5%, the highest reading in […]
US Support For Big China Shale Gas Challenge…..
……..Significant Commercial Production “At least Ten Years Away” By John Richardson A US-China Shale Gas Training Programme has been launched by the independent White House agency, the US Trade & Development Agency (USTDA). An initial $378,000 will be invested to enable the US industry to travel to China and “help introduce Chinese energy sector officials […]
Northeast Asian PE Margins At Record Low
By John Richardson THE above slide shows how bad the polyethylene (PE) market has been in 2012. Based on data from the ICIS pricing Asian PE Margin Report, it shows how Northeast Asian high-density (HDPE) integrated variable cost margins have fallen to their lowest level since 2000. This was supposed to be a good year, […]
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