Jakarta at night (source of picture: Wikimedia) By John Richardson THE blog first visited Indonesia in October 1997, shortly after the onset of the Asian Financial Crisis, and was amazed to think that only a few months earlier, the media was talking of the inevitable rise of Indonesia’s middle class, which was said to […]
Asian Chemical Connections
It Is Just Too Difficult
Smart bottles By John Richardson THERE is a growing concern amongst some polyolefin industry executives that, despite the economic problems first in China and now India, there is still a great deal of enthusiasm for adding new capacity, as we discuss in this ICIS Insight article. “Now that China has weakened, everybody has switched […]
Asian Inflation And Vietnam Polyolefins
Guess who’s coming to Christmas dinner Source of picture: biology.ucf.edu By John Richardson THE widespread problem of surging inflation in Asia ex-Japan is a major threat to petrochemicals demand growth in 2011. Governments need to put the brakes on to prevent economies from overheating. But the problem is that raising interest rates could […]
No Going Back, But Don’t Expect Smooth Ride
Cloth nappies?….you have to be kidding Source of picture: babygavin.com By John Richardson IT IS the biggest transformation that the global economy has probably ever undergone, resulting in numerous opportunities and challenges for the chemicals industry as emerging markets continue to boom. The obvious opportunity is for those who can meet […]