By John Richardson RISING equity and oil markets do not necessarily point to a V-shaped recovery. I know I’ve said this on several previous occasions, but it is critically important that petrochemicals companies and their customers see through the fog. I therefore need to re-emphasise the risks ahead. This useful article from The Guardian presents […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Coronavirus, impact on the developing world and the scale of demand losses
By John Richardson ALL OF us are struggling to come to terms with a collapse in the global economy that is poised to be worse than the Great Depression – in Britain’s case its deepest recession since the “Great Frost” of 1709. In the US, Wall Street analysts expect the US unemployment rate to still […]
Holding petchem CEOs to account: tackling societal needs the route to success
By John Richardson IF WE all had a dollar for every time we’d heard the phrase, “the growth of the Asian middle classes”, as just about the only justification by CEOs for petrochemicals and polymers investments, then the Principality of Monaco would by a very crowded place. There wouldn’t be enough room in the harbour […]
Polyethylene versus polypropylene: Expect the unexpected
By John Richardson IT IS supposed to be a tale of two polymers with these very different fortunes: Whereas our base case assumes that global polypropylene (PP) operating rates will average a healthy 89% in 2018-2025, we see polyethylene (PE) capacity utilisation at 83%. The higher the operating the stronger the profitability. The PP industry […]