Flagging Recovery Source of picture: www.guardian.co.uk By John Richardson THE latest US Institute of Supply Management survey signalled a buoyant manufacturing sector, in line with likely Q1 GDP (gross domestic product) growth of 5%, says the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Trends report from the American Chemistry Council. “Consumer spending is expanding and this […]
Asian Chemical Connections
US-China Yuan Row And The Threat To Chemicals
Source of picture: The China Daily By John Richardson THE outcome of the row between the US and China over the value of the Yuan has the potential to bring to an end a tentative and highly unbalanced global economic recovery, economists and chemicals industry sources have told the blog. If the US […]
THE US: Recovery, What Recovery?
Source of picture: http://www.infiniteunknown.net/ By John Richardson CORE consumer prices in the US declined for the first time in December since 1982, according to the latest American Chemistry Council (ACC) Weekl;y Chemistry and Economic Trends report. And the ACC’s latest monthly set of forecasts – compiled through averaging the predictions of “a […]
Benzene: What Lies Beneath
A Ring of Truth? Source of picture: http://web.pdx.edu/~nathanh/benzene/benzene2.gif By John Richardson TUMBLING Asian benzene prices are being blamed on weaker crude, itself a reflection of macro-economic worries over higher-than-expected US jobless figures, government debt problems in the Euro zone and tighter credit in China. “It’s not a question of whether, but when the secon dip […]
Corrected:Asian Naphtha-Ethylene Spreads Touch 2007 Levels
We should have originally written ‘integrated low-density polyethylene (LDPE) in paragraphsix, but instead wrote linear-low density PE (LLDPE). It’s now been corrected and apologies for the error – we will be buying some better glasses (less of this “we” – it’s actually “me”!) By John Richardson The rise in ethylene prices to what ICIS pricing says is […]
Refinery Profit Squeeze Threat To Petchems
“Any Old Iron?” Source of picture: http://www.investorfsbo.com/refinery.html By John Richardson A LONG-TERM shift in refinery economics is posing a major threat to petrochemical margins – along with the delayed supply crisis that’s likely to hit the industry at some point over the next year. “Refiners, when the global economy was booming and particularly after […]
Beware The Motives of Optimists
By John Richardson IT is always useful to make a note of both what economists are saying and where they are coming from. To give you an example, I was at a conference last year when I heard a ridiculously rosy outlook for both emerging and developed economies, delivered by an economist working for a […]
China’s Credit Growth Versus the West
By John Richardson THE BIG gap in credit growth between China and the developed world has been thrown into further relief by recently released data – raising inflationary concerns in the world’s most important economy, while emphasising how rich-world countries remain on government life-support systems. Broad money supply growth was a huge 30% in China […]
To Cut Rates Or Not To Cut…
A Famous Ditherer Source of picture: sarafinewordpress.com Chasing higher oil prices and/or a response to the now long-running recovery in Chinese demand that’s become sustainable? Not wanting to sound too much like the start of a famous Shakespeare soliloquy, these are the questions that should be wracking everyone’s brains as they try to figure […]
Excessive Confidence A Risk
Confidence along all the chemicals value chains is always a key issue because of the ability to aggressively manage inventories, according to the London-based chemicals analyst Paul Satchell. So there’s the ever-present risk of sudden and very disruptive de-stocking. The longer the current rallies in commodity prices and stock markets continue, the greater might be […]
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