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Asian Chemical Connections

How ridiculous does ridiculous have to get?

“YES, I HEAR YOU – I’M LISTENING….” Source of picture: New York Daily News   How ridiculous does crude-oil pricing have to become before regulatory reforms occur that limit the role of financial speculation in a helpful way? This was the question being asked by a refining industry source today after he had read this […]

GCC mood lifts despite worsening gas crisis

THE MOOD seems to have become a little more upbeat in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region of the Middle East thanks to the economic recovery. “The flow of foreign funds into the GCC came to a complete standstill in Q4 and the first quarter of this year, but in Q2-Q3 it reached all-time highs,” […]

The Iranian investment struggle

  Source of picture: www.textually.org   The political sensitivity surrounding Iran is so great that US-based companies are not even allowed to attend presentations by Iranian officials at conferences, a source said. “I witnessed a recent walk-out during a presentation by the National Iranian Oil & Distribution Company (NIODC),” he said. But a European office […]

Don’t count on Thai project delays

I have been digging a little deeper into the Map Ta Phut issue and it looks like expectations of major delays to projects at the site were a little premature. Construction has not stopped despite a ruling by Thailand’s Central Administrative Court to stop work on 76 projects at the site. The ruling was directed […]

Wearing blinkers is a job requirement

“Take it from me, peripheral vision isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially if you want to get a decent annual bonus….”   Source of picture: www.whipnspurs.co.nz   Here’s a rant for Tuesday – with thanks to Paul Hodges for informing some of the thinking (I’d like to lay credit to certain parts of this…) Purchasing […]

China lends guiding hand to futures markets

The Chinese government appears to have an important objective to achieve while promoting commodity futures trading in the country? A report in today’s Wall Street Journal says that the government is positioning its futures markets in setting world prices for metal, energy and farm commodities. Jiang Yang, chief futures industry policy maker and assistant chairman […]

Beware of the usual smoke and mirrors

Flying the flag for Q3… Source of picture: etftrends.com Yes, Q3 earnings season is almost upon us with the usual headline-grabbing improvements in carefully selected reported numbers. What this season might tell us about the overall direction of everything is, to start the week on yet another pessimistic note, hardly uplifting. John Authers is once […]

Thrifty times call for new strategies

At an investors conference call yesterday, Indira Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo, said she expects the ‘age of thrift’ in consumer spending to continue into next year. As consumers in the developed world are placing value at the top of their agendas, the company’s efforts in the future will be on developing lower priced […]

Chemical execs go long on realism

Offsetting the risk of being over-optimistic? Source of picture: thetradingpit.net     MAYBE there should futures contracts in realism versus recklessness. That way any senior company executive who wants to take a punt on next year being better than 2009 can offset the risk by going “realistic” on the futures markets – and, of course, vice […]

China’s Renewed Deflation Threat

“THIS IS RIDICULOUS. I WAS SITTING AROUND UNSOLD FOR MONTHS AND THEN WAS FORCED TO JOIN A SANTA FLEET-HIRE SCHEME. HOW HUMILIATING” Source of picture: www.diytrade.com BEWARE the prophets of recovery in exports of Chinese manufactured goods during the current Christmas buying season. Labour markets in the key export-processing provinces, such as Guangdong, are reported […]

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