By John Richardson MITT Romney is playing a dangerous game with pre-election rhetoric that might end up tying him to a policy decision that results in a US-China trade war, warns Stephen Roach, the former head of Morgan Stanley Asia and senior fellow at Yale University, in this article. in yesterday’s Financial Times. The Republican presidential nominee has […]
Asian Chemical Connections
If You Build It They May Not Come
By John Richardson “You cannot just sit back and expect things to happen the way they have happened in the past, especially in emerging markets.” This insight from a senior Asian-based executive with a global polyethylene (PE) producer highlights the risks faced by the global industry as we transition to the New Normal. The executive […]
China PE Demand Weakness Continues
By John Richardson LET’S put this into context: China’s polyethylene (PE) demand grew by 53 percent in 2008-2010. Growth during the first seven months of this year was just 1.7 percent over Januuary-July 2011, according to Global Trade Information Services (GTIS). And when compared with the same seven months in 2010 growth was flat, as the […]
Multiple Energy Options In China
Source of table: The Economist By John Richardson WHEN you are an energy giant such as Shell you can afford to explore multiple avenues in an effort to profit from China’s long-term energy needs. Thus Shell re-affirmed last week that it plans to invest $1bn in a year in exploiting the country’s vast shale-gas […]
China Stockpiles Mount
Source: New York Times By John Richardson INVENTORIES of finished goods are mounting in factories across China as manufacturers continue to run hard, according to this New York Times article – perhaps in the hope that in 3-6 months time, everything will be alright again. “My supplier’s inventory is huge because he cannot cut […]
Recovery Always 3-6 Months Away
By John Richardson THE recovery always seems to be three to six months away. Thus, as hope fades for a Q4 economic rebound in China, a marketing and sales executive with a major European speciality chemicals player told the blog earlier this week: “Everything will be fine in the New Year once China’s new leaders […]
China Coal-to-Olefins Strong Economics
By John Richardson THE economics of China’s coal-based olefins industry are favourable when measured on a cash cost basis in a high oil-price environment, as the slide above from the Singapore-based consultancy Methanol Market Services Asia (MMSA) illustrates. But even when oil prices decline, which occurred in May this year, swinging cash costs back in […]
Reliance Goes Boldly
Source: ICIS By John Richardson Reliance Industries is going boldly (no split infinitives here) where nobody has gone before: It is to build a cracker, which could eventually produce 1.6m tonne/year of ethylene, based entirely on off-gas feedstock supplied by its 1.24m tonne/year of refinery capacity at Jamnagar, Gujarat, India. Nobody has attempted anything […]
A Game Of Two Halves
Source: ICIS By John Richardson CHINA’S fibre intermediates industry could end of being a game of two halves in 2012, to use an old football (or soccer for the benefit of our America readers) cliché. The reason is that the first half of the year was characterised by very weak demand as the overall […]
Asian LDPE Margins Reach New Low
LDPE margins in 2012 By John Richardson NORTHEAST Asian integrated low-density polyethylene (LDPE) margins keep plunging new depths. The margins were at their most negative since ICIS records began in 2000, according to the ICIS Asian PE Margin Report for the week ending 10 August. And the report for the week ending 17 August said that they had fallen even […]
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