By John Richardson WHAT is the best route to innovation? Pure capitalism with a minimum amount of state interference or state-led investment programmes? The answer is likely to of course vary sector by sector. In some industrial sectors, the capitalist approach will work and in others, heavy state involvement will be more effective. A hybrid […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China Overlooked Lending Data Down 64% As Economic Slowdown Continues
By John Richardson FAR too little attention is still being paid to China’s lending data even though this has long been the key measure of whether its economy is accelerating or slowing down. In January 2014, lending in China started to slow down as China’s recently appointed president, Xi Jinping, exerted his authority. At that […]
US-China Trade Dispute: Pause For Breath Does Not Mean End In Sight
By John Richardson Confused? You might well be if you’ve read the news reports following the US-China trade meeting in Washington last week. The immediate threat of a trade war looks as if it has been averted. China’s top envoy at the trade talks, Liu He, said that both sides had agreed for the time […]
China Emerges As Winner In New Multipolar World
By John Richardson TODAY’S headline should be written on your petrochemicals company boardroom wall, in several inch-high capital letters, and should then be used as the basis for a deep discussion about the consequences of this outcome for your business. You should then build scenarios around how this would change investment strategies and trade flows. […]
SABIC’S Al-Mady Issues Europe Warning
By John Richardson MOHAMED Al-Mady, the CEO of SABIC, told the Financial Times yesterday that he worries about Europe losing out on petrochemical investments because of its reluctance to embrace shale gas. “Some European companies already made the decision to go into shale gas, so naturally when they do not there will not be development,” he […]
EU Summit Solves Nothing
European LDPE spot prices at their lowest level since January 2010 By John Richardson THE EU Summit results might have bought a little more time, but as John Authers points out in this article in the Financial Times, “the result was the latest politically driven bounce for risk markets (including crude-oil prices and […]
France’s Difficult Future
By John Richardson Francois Hollande, who has the won the French presidential election, talks about cutting the retirement age to 60 from 62 for people who have worked for 41 years. This is a handy slogan for an election campaign. But European pension liabilities suggest that people should be working until they are older, rather […]
To frack or not to frack…
By Malini Hariharan …is a debate that has starting moving out of the US. A desire for energy independence has seen countries like Poland to embrace shale gas with the government welcoming US companies to quickly develop the country’s reserves, estimated at 5.3 trillion cubic metres. This would be enough to meet Poland’s annual gas […]
Refinery closures – how many and how fast?
By Malini Hariharan Many Asian aromatics producers are optimistic that the worst is over and a gradual improvement in global demand coupled with firm Chinese demand will help them through 2009. There is also the expectation that a pressure on refining margins will lead to more plant closures which would also help the aromatics business. […]
Action in the propylene market
By Malini Hariharan Just when Asian propylene prices started easing comes news of disruptions in production and price hikes in the West. Propylene availability in Europe was hit after a strike by Total’s refinery workers early in the week resulted in the closure of 36% of France’s C3 capacity. This forced Total to declare force […]
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