By John Richardson LAST WEEK’S steep fall in global stock markets was of course the result of rising US-North Korea geopolitical tensions. Some $1 trillion was wiped off equity values. We obviously all hope that the geopolitical tensions will ease. But that would still leave behind a bull-run in global equities that has mainly been […]
Asian Chemical Connections
A Road Map For Success
The new chapter of our free ‘Boom, Gloom and the New Normal’ ebook sets out a road map to success for companies in the New Normal. It also identifies 5 key areas where major change is already underway. Demand-driven. Markets have essentially been supply-driven in recent decades, with growth being forecast on the basis of […]
The Risks Of Being An Outlier
By John Richardson THE blog has been mystified throughout this year over why senior industry executives appear to remain “in denial” over the weakness of global petrochemicals markets. Time and again we have heard the comment that the falls in demand were only the result of de-stocking. The public mood of the industry has soured […]
Crude, Equities & Polyolefin Pricing
This is a huge subject, one that this blog will need to keep revisiting – and if you tell us we’ve got it wrong, we’ll always listen and respond. For what it’s worth, the article below might give you some food for thought. The influence of crude we are talking about below is different from […]
Is the risk of staying long worth it?
Source of picture: Time.com Yesterday I talked about lack of willingness by western banks to lend money because their focus was on rebuilding reserves. But Steven Major, Global Head of HSBC’s Fixed Income Strategy Team, puts a different spin on the problem. In the Fragile Recovery video from the Financial Times’ View […]
No more pessimism for a couple of weeks
You maybe relieved, on the day the Chinese government introduces measures to cool stock markets resulting in sharp fall in the Shanghai Exchange, that I am going on leave for a couple of weeks. Perhaps I’ll feel the sun on my back (unlikely as I’ll be visiting Scotland), come back with renewed optimism and not […]
Another Asian Financial Crisis, this time triggered by China?
After yesterday’s optimism, yet more pessimism. I remember 1997. Don’t underestimate the dange of contagion if China’s stock market bubble does burst – as the likes of Alan Greenspan are predicting
Reliance predicts a big India polymer deficit
The optimism seems infectious: Reliance’s market capitalisation breached the RS3 trillion level today, placing the giant in an elite group of only three Indian companies.And the petrochemicals major is predicting 12.59m tonnes of polymer demand in India in 2011-12 with local supply at slightly below 8m tonnes/year. The forecast big deficit is based on a […]