China’s share of global demand growth in the seven big resins jumped to an astonishing 67% in 2002-2021. Northeast Asia ex-China’s share of demand fell to minus 1% with Europe and North America worth just 4% and 2% of growth respectively. The chemicals world had become dangerously lopsided.
Asian Chemical Connections
Iran and China new deal could hasten Belt & Road Initiative petrochemicals self-sufficiency
By John Richardson ONCE AGAIN, please don’t say I didn’t tell you. A proposed new investment and security agreement between Iran and China is the kind of closer relationship I had expected back in September 2016 when I wrote: China’s demand for oil is forecast to grow from 6m bbl/day today to 13m bbl/day by […]
Donald Trump’s “Tariff Man” Tweet exposes lack of G20 substance
By John Richardson That didn’t last long, did it? But anyone paying attention to the detail, or rather the lack of it from the Chinese perspective, would have known as early as Sunday morning Asian time that the G20 deal wasn’t a deal at all. It was just an agreement to start talking again. The […]
US/China trade war: G20 deal would not solve deep-seated differences
By John Richardson NOBODY should be surprised by warm smiles, firm handshakes and an agreement to freeze the trade war when President Trump and President Xi meet on 30 November. Equally possible is that when the two leaders meet at the G20 Summit in Argentina no deal will be done and the trade war will […]
China’s PE market in 2019 at risk of lower growth
By John Richardson THIS MIGHT turn out to be another good year for Chinese PE demand growth as the preliminary estimate from our China team is that 2018 consumption growth will be 7% compared with last year. This compares with the forecast in our Supply & Demand database of a 5.4% increase. The above […]
Mike Pence’s key China speech highlights Cold War risks for petchems
By John Richardson US VICE president Mike Pence made a barely reported speech on 4 October in which his big theory was that Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama misread China. Mr Pence said that the nation they embraced as a partner was instead a competitor. It is important that you read the […]
US and China heading towards a new Cold War
That didn’t last long – , in fact, less than 24 hours,, when, as far stock markets were concerned, it felt as if US/China trade tensions had eased. In a tweet, President Trump has now raised questions about whether any new trade talks between the US and China will go ahead. And even if the […]
Russian Sanctions Too Little, Too Late
By John Richardson “A common orthodoxy in Western thought – the notion of a globalising world in which greater prosperity was ultimately analogous to stability – has been again thrown into contention,” wrote the Financial Times, in an article worth very close reading, headlined Russia’s New Art of War. The problem with this common orthodoxy […]
Jump to page: