By John Richardson INDIA is at risk of squandering its demographic dividend, warned investment bank Espirito Santo when it wrote in a September 2013 note: If India continues its current path it will face a catastrophic shortage of jobs, creating a young and angry population, and with it conditions for social unrest and economic disaster. […]
Asian Chemical Connections
ExxonMobil Highlights US Growth Challenge
By John Richardson WHEN somebody very senior in the petrochemicals industry makes a bold statement – one that pulls no punches – it is worth taking note. And so it is worth reading in full what Stephen Pryor, ExxonMobil Chemical president, said at the opening ceremony for ExxonMobil’s latest Singapore petchems complex on 8 January. […]
Prepare For More Fragmented, Protected Markets
By John Richardson Last week, the blog gave a presentation at the ICIS Asian Polyolefins Conference in Jakarta during which we highlighted the anxiety over the impact of increased low cost ethylene and derivatives exports from the US. But only 3.9 million tonnes of ethylene and derivatives are forecast by ICIS Consulting to be surplus […]
Planning For New Growth Patterns
By John Richardson “Have you noticed that your parents spend less money than you do?” asks Merryn Somerset Webb in this Financial Times article. She agrees with us that the answer is, of course, “Yes”. This very neatly brings the issue down to a personal level, one that all of us can relate to, and […]
The BRICS Fallacy
By John Richardson THE above chart, from a new Research Note released by fellow blogger Paul Hodges, exposes the fallacy that BRICS and emerging-market growth can by themselves rescue the global economy. And, as we have highlighted before on this blog, there are no long-term guarantees that China, the big driver of BRICS growth, will continue […]
US Chemicals Still Behind 2007
By John Richardson US chemicals production remains way below its pre-crisis 2007 level but production in Asia-Pacific, after a brief blip in 2009, continues to soar, according to these charts from the American Chemistry Council. Whereas US producers have carried out few capacity expansions since 2007 and are runnning existing plants at lower operating rates, […]
Greek Election Results Change Nothing
By John Richardson HOW long will the relief rally last in oil and equity markets following the Greek election results? Sadly, the answer is not long, because difficult discussions lay ahead for the New Democracy party as it tries to form a government. Greece, also, remains broke and so the Euro crisis is far from […]
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