By John Richardson NOTHING that has happened over the last 24 hours should take you by surprise. Your petrochemicals company has had ample time to prepare for the US-China trade war that has now become a much stronger possibility following the US decision to impose $60bn of new tariffs on Chinese imports. Shortly after President […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China Doubles Down On Pollution Clean-up: Consequences For Chemicals
By John Richardson ECONOMIC GROWTH for the sake of economic growth was for so many years the No1 priority in China. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that there is a legacy of major environmental problems. These include some 1.6m premature deaths a year from air pollution alone, according to an independent study in 2015. A […]
China And US On Collision Course As Trade Tensions Build
By John Richardson Yesterday, President Trump threatened to impose penalties on China for alleged abuse of intellectual property right rules. Below is the context behind way claims of abuses are likely to increase in the future. This suggests that China and the US are on a collision course over trade, with major negative implications for […]
Threat To US Polyethylene From President Trump’s Iran Decision
By John Richardson THE geopolitical and economic relationship between China and Iran was already very strong even before Donald Trump decertified the Iranian nuclear deal. Now, though, Iran and China could draw even closer. This could pose a major threat to the US polyethylene (PE) industry as it ramps-up capacity. Here, first of all, is […]
China To Raise Ethylene Capacity By 71% In Major Self-Sufficiency Drive
By John Richardson CHINA could raise its ethylene capacity by as much as 71% and its propylene capacity by at least 21%, according to my latest analysis of a major new wave of naphtha, ethane and LPG crackers. The above chart is an update of the chart I first published back in June. In detail: […]
China: New Catch Phrase Backs Up Old Data
By John Richardson OLD data doesn’t always go away. What instead sometimes happens is that people slightly adapt their old growth forecasts to suit changing events. “The rapid growth of China’s service sector and its consumer-led economy” has thus become the new catch phrase used to justify numbers that look only slightly different from those […]
Asia’s Ageing Populations: Challenges And Opportunities
By John Richardson EVERYONE should know by now that China faces a demographic crisis that, unless addressed, guarantees much lower GDP growth for many years to come. This explains the urgency of economic reforms designed to escape the “middle income trap”. But here are some disturbing statistics from the Asian Development Bank about other countries in […]
China Polyester: Failure To Ask The Right Questions
By John Richardson HERE is a historical account of what has gone wrong with China’s polyester industry: Apparel and non-apparel manufacturers were first encouraged to back-integrate to polyester fibres production and then to purified terephthalic (PTA) as the central government sought to develop the economy through import substitution. This might have been fine without decision […]
China Still A Long Way From Solving Its Demographic Crisis
SO much for a new demographic dividend, as we warned last November when China announced that it had relaxed its one-child policy. If you recall, Beijing decided that couples would be allowed to have two children if just one of them was an only child. The previous system stipulated that both parents had to be only […]
Europe’s Dinosaur Destiny
By John Richardson DINOSAURS became extinct, scientists think, because of an event beyond their control – either an asteroid colliding with the earth, volcanic activity, an ice age, disease or gradual climate change. With all due respect to the former inhabitants of our planet, they were not the brightest of species. Thus, even if they […]
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