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Asian Chemical Connections

China By Itself Is Not A Strategy

By John Richardson SOMETIMES a bit of data is worth many thousands of words – and so my choice of chart for today. It shows that in one major petrochemical, polyethylene (PE), China’s imports in 2014 continued to hugely overshadow shipments to every other major importing region of the world (the chart above excludes Japan, […]

China Versus The EU: What A Contrast

By John Richardson IT is worth comparing what is happening in China today with what is happening in the EU. First of all, in China we are seeing: A political leadership that has been honest enough to admit that China got it wrong in the past. This has led to a new economic and social […]

China: Counting The Cost Of Wrong Analysis

By John Richardson VERY few people listened when I warned in November 2013 that China’s economy was about to enter a “New Normal” as a result of the biggest about-turn in economic policy that China had seen for at least 20 years. A few more people took heed of a clear indication in January 2014 that this momentous, world-shaking […]

Asian Polyethylene: Inventory Losses Threaten Survival

By John Richardson HERE are some observations, from several discussions with market participants this week, about what is happening in China’s key polyethylene (PE) market: If the oil price stays at $40-50 a barrel then payment collection from local customers, who kept going into the market to buy resin when they thought the crude market […]

This Is No Way To Run Companies In The Future

By John Richardson WHEN the history of 2015 is eventually written, there will no doubt be some petrochemicals industry executives who will say, “I simply didn’t see this coming”. This will to some extent be disingenuous as for share price reasons it is better to stick with the consensus view even if you hold private […]

2014: The Rear View Mirror

By John Richardson MOST of my forecasts for 2014, which I made in this post on 30 December last year, look good in the rear view mirror. I was right about credit availability being the single biggest issue for the polyethylene (PE) industry in China – and, of course, all other manufacturing sectors. As the […]

China Restructures The Global Petchems Business

By John Richardson This chart should truly take your breath away as it shows that: China’s purified terephthalic acid (PTA) exports fell from 2.5m tonnes in January-November 2013 to just over a million tonnes for the same period this year. That is a collapse of around 60%. Meanwhile, exports surged – again on the same […]

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