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Asian Chemical Connections

US Trade Policy Has So Far Bought China More Time…

…..But any number of outcomes remain possible, which underlines the fact that we live in a world of elevated political risk. Chemicals companies must, as a result, build multiple scenarios for future economic growth and trade flows. By John Richardson TIME was a commodity that China didn’t think it had very much of as recently […]

Life Cycle Of Plastics Packaging Demand And Internet Sales

By John Richardson THERE is a huge amount of excitement out there right now about booming internet sales and how this also boosting packaging demand and so sales of polymers such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene and polystyrene. China is, not surprisingly, the biggest growth market.  Demand for foamed PE  is, for example, booming in China […]

China PP Market Outlook for H2 And 2018

By John Richardson AS IS the case with polyethylene (PE), China’s polypropylene (PP) market continues to catch up with the underlying realities of demand growth. If you recall, in Q1 of this year PP net imports (imports minus exports) grew by no less than 36% over the same period last year to 1.3m tonnes. The […]

European Polyolefins: Rebuilding The Bridges

  By John Richardson SHOULD any petrochemicals value chain be a zero-sum game – a constant battle between suppliers and customers to determine who emerges as the single winner in any one month or quarter? No, absolutely not. It is possible to create win-win situations for both suppliers and customers, as has been the case […]

Europe Needs A New “Marshall Plan”

By John Richardson IT isn’t working. Surely, Europe’s policymakers must realise this? The trouble is that I worry they still don’t get it, otherwise there would not be plans to print more money in Europe. Resorting to extra quantitative easing isn’t going to rescue Europe’s “lost generation”. More of the wrong kind of European economic […]

Central Banks Risk Being Behind The Curve

By John Richardson BACK in 2003 the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) predicted that dangerous imbalances were building up in the global financial system. The BIS, a Brussels-based international organisation for central banks, was worried that the Fed and other central banks were compromising long term stability in favour of short-term growth. Sadly, policymakers didn’t […]

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