By John Richardson WE COULD now be in a destocking phase in petrochemicals markets as oil prices are falling on a surge in US production. This would obviously mean lower petrochemicals pricing, leaving companies that have overbuilt raw material inventories with substantial financial losses. I hope that most companies have been prudent. In January, the […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Demand: The New Direction for Profit
By John Richardson WE were right about China’s change of economic direction, which we identified in November 2013. We were then right about the collapse in oil prices from August 2014 onwards. And we also made the right call when we pointed out that these two events are inextricably linked. Being right in the past is, […]
US Oil Exports And The Struggle For Jobs
By John Richardson THERE are few other genuine long-term bright spots in the US economy other than shale oil and shale gas unless you are at the very top of the economic pile and so view cloud computing, social media and internet search engines as equivalent to “Morning in America” again. Cloud computing, social media […]
Managing China’s Middle Income Aspirations
Finding a way through…. Traffic in Shanghai. Picture: Rex Features By John Richardson WHEN the blog first visited China in the late 1990s, it travelled around Beijing in a fruitless and naive attempt to get people to really talk about everyday life. Last week was the complete opposite during our visit to Beijing and Shanghai. People initiated conversations […]