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Asian Chemical Connections

Middle East Petchem Producers Feel China Slowdown

By John Richardson MORE evidence has emerged of a slowdown in demand for polyolefins in China following the sharp decline in March imports. The Middle East is now feeling the pinch as a result of the impact of inflation and the reduced availability of credit. “I visited a propane dehydrogenation (PDH)-to-polypropylene (PP) producer in Saudi Arabia last week. The […]

OPEC, China Inflation And Petchems

By John Richardson OPEC’s decision to maintain crude quotas at current levels could give the banks further ammunition to manipulate opinion that the black stuff is genuinely in tight supply. There is plenty of evidence that oil is, in fact, still pretty long – and that this bull-run is yet again about speculators talking up […]

Polyethylene Pricing Separates From Fundamentals

By John Richardson Linear-low density polyethylene (LLDPE) pricing in China has become increasingly divorced from industry fundamentals as a result of the growing role of the Dalian Commodity Exchange’s futures contract, claimed a Singapore-based polyolefin trader late last week. And the contract is setting the physical market, resulting in Dalian performing a similar role that […]

How ridiculous does ridiculous have to get?

“YES, I HEAR YOU – I’M LISTENING….” Source of picture: New York Daily News   How ridiculous does crude-oil pricing have to become before regulatory reforms occur that limit the role of financial speculation in a helpful way? This was the question being asked by a refining industry source today after he had read this […]

We are heading for $45 a barrel crude this year

SWIMMING IN OIL?   Source of Picture: fashionfunky.com     The threat posed by Iran test-firing its Shahab-3 missiles and a rally in US equities on increased M& activity in the drug and technology industries pushed crude slightly higher yesterday after last week’s steep declines. This is yet further evidence that the oil market is […]

Artificial price support about to disappear

Source of picture: gilesbowkett.blogspot.com The excellent daily energy and shipping report, The Schork Report said today that the bottom had “fallen out of the entire (energy) complex.” With the Bulls on the defensive, the authors believe that crude could retreat towards $60/bbl. Natural gas markets are so oversupplied that prices in the region of $2/mBTU […]

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