By John Richardson EARNINGS estimates for South Korean petrochemicals companies for the full-year 2012 remain around 30 percent above where they should be because “most financial analysts remain in denial“, said an industry source. A sign of how bad the times have become was that LG Chem’s Q2 results, which were released last week, […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Fibre Intermediates In Panic
By John Richardson A SENSE of panic has gripped the fibre intermediates chain as a result of falling crude oil prices, an industry observer told the blog. “Nobody knows where the bottom of the market will be, which, to me, feels a great deal like the crisis in late 2008,” he said, “Prices are in […]
MEG Continues To Struggle
By John Richardson THE above chart is a further illustration of what we believe is the wrong consensus view over China. Q1 2012 mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) imports surged by 30% compared with the same period last year, as traders bet on a sharp rebound in China’s economy. They believed all the talk of more local […]
China Economic Optimism
By John Richardson ECONOMISTS think China’s growth has bottomed out, thanks to unexpectedly strong March bank lending. They also think that interest rates will stay low for a long time, even if rates cannot be cut because of the inflation problem. New loans in March totalled Rmb1trn ($159bn), more than banking analysts had expected. This renewed […]
PTA Set To Suffer in 2011-14
By John Richardson THE last 18 months has been stellar for the polyester chain thanks to tight supply upstream in paraxylene (PX) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA), record-high cotton prices and a booming economy in China. But all good times must come an end if our worst fears about China come true. The longer-term direction of […]
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