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Asian Chemical Connections

The Worst Things Get The Better They Are

By John Richardson THE more that China’s economy weakens, the greater the hope of a recovery in the second half of this year. This type of thinking was in evidence last week. The release of a raft of disappointing economic data for April boosted the confidence of some people in the petrochemicals industry that China’s […]

China’s Inflation Challenge

By John Richardson In our third post on the context behind last week’s steep fall in polyolefins prices,and the prospects for a recovery, we look at inflation – one of China’s numerous economic challenges…..I NFLATION remains a major threat in China, hence the government is unable to make the cuts in interest rates necessary to […]

Demand Is The Thing

By John Richardson In the second of a series of three blog posts, we gauge the reaction of the market to last week’s sharp decline in polyolefin prices. Yesterday, we focused on the Middle East. Today, we interview a source with a Western-headquartered global polyolefin producer. He told us: “I have a dreadful feeling that […]

Saudi Worries About China Netbacks

    By John Richardson Here is the first of a three blog posts on what is happening in China’s polyolefins markets. Today, we look at the Middle East and tomorrow and Thursday we present the perspective of traders and Western-headquartered polyolefin producers. The series is in response to what we believe is a turning […]

Asian Polyolefin Prices Tumble

By John Richardson Asian polyethylene (PE) prices slumped by $90-130/tonne last week on the eurozone crisis, the fall in oil prices and the imminent arrival in China of large volumes of Iranian material, according to ICIS pricing. A further factor dragging down the market was the start-up, expected by end-May, of Qapco’s low-density polyethylene (LDPE) […]

Butadiene Oversupply Threat

By John Richardson THERE is a lot of talk at the moment about on-purpose butadiene, via the butane dehydrogenation process, because of the recent extreme market tightness . The tightness is the result of a shift to lighter cracker feedstocks and reduced operating rates at naphtha crackers in Europe. Future feedstock patterns are also not […]

China To Grow at 3 Percent

By John Richardson THE possibility that China’s economy may not expand as rapidly in the future as in the past is never discussed in public by resources-company CEOs, said an Australian-based stockbroker. His comments ring true for petrochemicals, also. The blog is struggling to find a senior executive willing to discuss this possibility on the […]

Polyolefins And China Real Estate

  By John Richardson SOME polyolefin companies continue to present an optimistic picture of markets to investors. They point to positive factors such as renewed economic stimulus in China and a recovery in auto production in Thailand following last year’s floods. But, as we said yesterday, those involved in the day-to-day grind of trying to […]

Canton Trade Fair Disappoints

  By John Richardson THE total value of export orders at the latest Canton Trade Fair, which finished this weekend, declined by 4.8% compared with the previous event in October last year. This is the first decline in the value of orders at the bi-annual fair since May 2009, when the world was in the […]

France’s Difficult Future

By John Richardson Francois Hollande, who has the won the French presidential election, talks about cutting the retirement age to 60 from 62 for people who have worked for 41 years. This is a handy slogan for an election campaign. But European pension liabilities suggest that people should be working until they are older, rather […]

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