By John Richardson A SURE sign that the Asian ethylene-to-polyethylene (PE) markets are distressed comes from the above chart on the left which shows declines in block copolymer polypropylene (PP) premiums over homo-polymer raffia-grade PP since June of this year. In October in Southeast Asia (SEA), the price for the normally higher value block copolymer […]
Asian Chemical Connections
India must forget trying to follow China and should instead launch a Green New Deal
By John Richardson DON’T WORRY, I am told, India is on the way. As China undergoes major structural changes which guarantee much lower petrochemicals and polymers demand growth over the long term, it is widely assumed that India will pick up the mantle. But that what happened in China was an economic, social and political […]
How sustainability will upend the petrochemicals cost curve, creating new winners and losers
By John Richardson THE FUTURE I described on Wednesday, of declining petrochemicals and polymers demand growth as the Millennials reshape consumer markets, is only doom and gloom if you let it be doom and gloom. This represents a fantastic opportunity for companies in our industry to entirely reshape their strategies and emerge as winners. Gone […]
Plastic waste crisis threatens 575m tonnes of global non-recycled PE demand
By John Richardson THE DEMAND growth for oil and other liquid fuels could be more than 50% lower up until 2040 under one scenario presented by BP in its latest Energy Review. This outcome would be the result of substantial growth in polymers recycling over the next 20 years. Oil majors are spending billions of […]
Holding petchem CEOs to account: tackling societal needs the route to success
By John Richardson IF WE all had a dollar for every time we’d heard the phrase, “the growth of the Asian middle classes”, as just about the only justification by CEOs for petrochemicals and polymers investments, then the Principality of Monaco would by a very crowded place. There wouldn’t be enough room in the harbour […]
Complacency, LLDPE and plastic waste: A collapse in demand
By John Richardson THE TECHNICAL people, those with PHDs in polymer science who have also spent years in application development work, will tell you it is simply impossible to find other materials that perform as well as LLDPE. Multi-layer LLDPE films are vital in applications such as wrapping food, they argue, thanks to excellent barrier properties. […]
China’s time poor, cash rich will want less PP and not more
By John Richardson LAST month I gave you the downside of urbanisation in China and how this could result in 7m tonnes of lower polyethylene (PE) demand in 2030 than we assume in our base case. A very good contact of mine has however pointed out this fascinating article from the World Economic Forum on […]
Rise in sustainable mobility on new social trends: Impact on PP
By John Richardson ENVIRONMENTAL concerns over wasting the earth’s resources are one factor behind the rise of Uber and other ride-hailing services as a replacement for car ownership in cities. But in heavily congested cities, large several-tonne lumps of metal and plastic still spend a lot of time in traffic jams, even with clever routing […]
China And Aramco IPO: Win, Wins From A Closer Relationship
By John Richardson NO SMOKE without fire? Perhaps, as there more and more reports that China will buy into next year’s Saudi Aramco IPO.. This would further cement already strong economic and geopolitical ties between China and Saudi Arabia. It was Reuters that first reported back in April that China was interested in buying into Aramco […]
The Opportunities For 2016 And Beyond Are Huge
A happy festive season and all the best for the New Year to my readers. What should chemicals companies do to be successful in 2016 and beyond. What follows will help. I am taking a break from blogging, but will be back on 3 January. By John Richardson WHAT have we learnt from the last […]