By John Richardson CHINA’S petrochemicals markets are likely to enjoy a confidence rally as a result of yesterday’s announcement of a mini economic stimulus package. The details of the stimulus package include: More railway construction. The State Council released plans on Wednesday to sell $24 billion US of bonds this year to build railways in […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China And Re-examining Your Customers
In the first part of a two-part series on how chemicals companies need to respond to China’s economic reforms, we look at the “account receivables” challenge. Tomorrow we will look at new growth opportunities. By John Richardson AS China’s credit wind down continues, and its overall economic reforms accelerate, chemicals companies need to look […]
China’s Official View On New Stimulus
By John Richardson THE mood has improved in China’s chemicals markets over the last few days thanks to strong indications from Beijing that a new economic stimulus package is about to be launched. But, as we predicted yesterday, any such package will not be anything like the giant 2008-2009 stimulus package, or even that of […]
China Copper, Chemicals And The Interconnections
By John Richardson IT is the interconnections that matter and the trouble is that few people seem to have adequately thought about the interconnections between the various dysfunctional parts of the Chinese economy. For example; A lot of the main players in copper financing are also involved in the property market, according to this FT […]
China Housing No Longer A One-Way Bet
By John Richardson CHINA’s real estate sector was responsible for 16% of the country’s GDP growth, 33% of fixed asset investment, 20% of outstanding loans, 26% of new loans, and contributed 39% to government revenues in 2013, according to Nomura. And so the potential downside to chemicals demand from a correction in the property sector […]
China’s Urbanisation Myth Bites The Dust
By John Richardson THE blog would again be in the position of being able to afford a yacht in Monte Carlo if it had a dollar, even in an Australian dollar these days, for every time it has heard the phrase “urbanisation will underpin long-term growth in China”. But just as some of the other […]
China And The “Conflation” Problem
By John Richardson WHEN all you care about is making money on the next chemicals cargo, or on a recovery in financial markets, then the current “will they, won’t they?” question over whether China will launch a new round of economic stimulus makes every bit of sense. The debate grew more intense on Monday after […]
Take Away The China “Froth” And What’s Left?
By John Richardson THE denial that we discussed last week is still very much in evidence. For example, we heard the argument over the last few days that China’s economic slowdown would involve only “a couple of bad quarters” and then China, and Asia-Pacific markets in general, would be back to normal. The following two […]
India Can Be Plastic Fantastic
By John Richardson THE blog has recently heard India described as “very disappointing” by several overseas executives of major polyolefins producers. When pressed about what they meant, they told us: Economic growth over the last few years has been much weaker than expected. This has been the result of infrastructure constraints and lack of foreign […]
What Comes After Shale Gas
By John Richardson IF the blog had a dollar for every occasion it had heard the phrase “ the shale gas revolution” over the last five years, we would be sitting on the deck of our yacht in Monte Carlo harbour right now, pondering the dilemma of when would be a good time for us […]
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