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
India still shining
The figures may not be as impressive as China but India too has been churning out some good growth numbers. The Index of Industrial Production was up 11.7% in November, the fastest pace of growth in more than two yeas. While growth was broad-based the consumer durables sector was a major contribution as production expanded […]
More Questionable Chinese Data Clouds The Picture
It seems as if Lex of the Financial Times is finally catching up with this blog by questioning the validity of some of the official data coming out of China. We take this as a compliment. In today’s column it talks about how the total for first-half Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth numbers for China’s 31 provinces […]
Japan is still in search of a consumer recovery
Japan’s fourth quarter GPD growth of 4.8%, which was released today, exceeded economists’ expectations. However, although consumer spending rose by 1.1% on an annualised basis, this merely compensated for the 1.1% decline in Q3. In addition, wages rose by only 0.2% last year, barely up from a decade-long decline. Companies are preferring to pay down […]
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