By John Richardson YOU might well have forgotten the Turkish lira crisis because of the US/China trade war. But Turkey is crucial for the health of the global polyolefins business because of the size of its imports. Before the US fell out with Turkey, resulting in the collapse of the lira, we had expected that […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Chinese PE Tariffs Come Into Effect: The Impact On The Global Business
By John Richardson CHINA’S 25% import tariffs on all grades of US high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and 93% of the grades of linear-low density (LLDPE), which came into effect yesterday, look set to cause major damage to the global PE business. One of the biggest casualties could be the earnings of US PE producers. We shouldn’t […]
Turkey Crisis: Implications For Polyolefins And Global Economy
By John Richardson THE first ramification of the Turkey crisis is that the collapse of the lira raises questions over how Turkish importers will be able to afford the dollars to pay for some of the polyolefins imported since the crisis began. Then comes the issue of what happens to Turkish polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene […]
China’s About Turn: The Seven Global Implications
By John Richardson HISTORIANS will end up concluding that falling emerging market currencies and stock markets – the prelude to what could be a full-blown crisis – is really about China and not about the US Federal Reserve. The Fed is just a sideshow to the main event of what is going to drive not […]
Turkish Escape Valve Under Threat
By John Richardson TURKEY has long been a useful barometer of the overall health of the global polymers industry, especially polyolefins, because of its heavy dependence on imports (see the slide below, courtesy of Ali Murat Ayar – managing director of Say Polymers, the Amsterdam-headquartered global polyolefins trader and distributor with operations in Turkey). If […]
Constant Search For Feedstock Advantage
By John Richardson AROUND $6bn worth of proposed petrochemical investments in Kazakhstan – the giant central Asian country with abundant oil and gas reserves – once again confirms the three most important factors for success: Feedstock, feedstock and feedstock. “The gas that will supply these projects is sufficiently advantaged to overcome major construction and logistics […]
The Fear Factor Dominates
By John Richardson EVERYWHERE you turn it is bad as fear over the future dominates the mood of polyolefin producers and buyers. Aversion to risk seems to have increased because of the concern that this could be September 2008 all over again. Hand-to-mouth buying is the norm as no purchasing manager who values his or […]
Job-hopping Causes Post-New Year Demand Dip
Chinese workers are on the hop…. Source of picture: advanced-fibre.com By John Richardson CHINA’S polyolefin demand in the few days of proper trading that have taken place since the Lunar New Year has been described as “horrendous” and “grim” by two traders the blog spoke to yesterday. This was confirmed by a source […]
Turkish Polyolefins Confront Tight Credit, China Uncertainty
Source of picture: www.turkeytravel.com By John Richardson THE economic crisis continues to force the global chemicals industry to think on its feet due to, among many other things, persistently tight credit in some regions. China has also become even more of an important market with every rumour and counter-rumour about levels of demand there […]
Jump to page: