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Asian Chemical Connections

Consensus Confidence For 2013

By John Richardson THE consensus view is that Chinese growth will be fine at the very least for the first half of this year, and possibly for the whole of 2013, thanks to all the money still sloshing around the economy. An additional $19.1bn of infrastructure spending, which was announced by Beijing earlier this week, is a […]

China Govt Confirms Post-CNY Labour Shortages

The great news behind rising labour costs: Shan Dalin, pictured with his family, is a crane operator from Southwest China’s Guizhou province who has worked in eastern Zhejiang province for 10 years. In 2012, Shan’s monthly income rose to 2,800 yuan ($449) from lower than 2,000 yuan in 2008. [Photo/Xinhua]   By John Richardson The […]

Low Equity Volumes Tell The Real Story

By John Richardson The above chart is the most important indicator about why the current rally in equity markets is at high risk of a sharp correction. Volumes in European markets (the blue line) and US markets (the red line) are significantly below levels in 2006-2012. High volumes are always a bullish indicator as it means […]

China SMEs Under More Strain

Source of picture: Rex Features   By John Richardson WE are worried that the recovery in Asia’s chemicals and polymer markets may not be sustained. One of our biggest concerns is that China’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which make up 60% of the economy and are responsible for 80% of employment, are under more […]

China SMEs Under More Strain

Source of picture: Rex Features   By John Richardson WE are worried that the recovery in Asia’s chemicals and polymer markets may not be sustained. One of our biggest concerns is that China’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which make up 60% of the economy and are responsible for 80% of employment, are under more […]

China Credit, Commodities Bubble

By John Richardson China announced last week that its state-owned banks had lent Rmb1.07 trillion ($172m) in January, which was more than double the amount in December. Financial markets have taken as evidence that the economic recovery has gained momentum. But when you combine January-February lending for 2012 in order to get rid of the […]

Nothing Has Changed In Japan

By John Richardson THE Nikkei Index has risen by more than 30% since November (see the chart below). Earlier this week, the Nikkei was at its highest level since September 2008.   Global stock markets are, in general, of course, on a roll. This is fantastic news for the day traders and the electronic traders, […]

US LNG Projects Up In The Air

By John Richardson THE US petrochemicals industry is battling hard to block an explosion in liquefied natural gas (LNG) investments that they fear would result in a rise in ethane, propane and butane feedstock costs. Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, raised this issue in December, but the pressure from the industry on legislators responsible […]

China’s PE Cycle Repeats Itself

By John Richardson THE above chart shows that China’s polyethylene (PE) demand growth has been well below that of overall GDP for most of the years between 2006 and 2012. This supports the argument that economic growth has been too heavily focused on investment rather than consumption, given that the majority of PE goes into […]

US Petchems “Double Peak” Theory

Wall Street rounding up investors? Source of picture: Rex Features   In a guest blog post, Joseph Chang, the global editor of our magazine, ICIS Chemical Business, echoes our own concerns that it is getting very frothy out there. The “this time it will be different” school of thought sems to be controlling the sentiment […]

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