John Richardson’s Asian Chemicals Connections looks at Asian and global commodity chemicals and polymer pricing trends, supply and demand, macroeconomics, energy and environmental issues.
By John Richardson INVESTORS must look beyond measures of GDP growth if they are going to understand what is really happening in the global economy, wrote James Sweeney, chief economist at Credit Suisse, in the Financial Times. “Body temperatures, foot traffic, internet trends and stimulus cheque arrivals represent a small sample of the data that...
By John Richardson CHINA FACES another test of its pandemic control capabilities because of new outbreaks in Hebei and Heilongjiang provinces. On Wedn...
ReadBy John Richardson MOST OF the time historical events move at a snail’s pace. The metaphorical tectonic plates are still moving but th...
ReadBy John Richardson IT WAS a tremendous year. China’s 2020 polyethylene (PE) demand growth over 2019 averaged 10% across the three grades. This compr...
ReadBy John Richardson THE END of the oil age is arriving. Sooner than many people think, demand for oil in transportation will collapse. And as the envir...
ReadGuest blogger, Paul Hodges looks behind today's headlines and studies key influencers shaping the chemical industry over the next 12-18 months. He takes a closer look at oil prices, economic growth and the environment among other things, along with some light-hearted commentary along the way.
Sustainability rather than globalisation is becoming the key driver for business. And the paradigm shift this creates means that companies need to adopt new Critical Success Factors as shown above. Leadership skills will be essential at all levels of the organisation in order to stimulate the creativity and action orientation required for success. There are...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen”. Lenin’s famous insight was highly relevant to 2020. It was ...
ReadMost companies had closed when the new EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) was finally announced on Christmas Eve. And they are only now start...
ReadEach year, it seems there is only one candidate for Chart of the Year. And 2020 is no exception. It has to be the CAPE Index developed by Nobel Prize ...
ReadI worked for many years at a world-leading chemical company, ICI. But sadly, it lost its way as senior management began to focus more on financial met...
ReadICIS energy editors post their expert opinions on the major topics facing participants in the European gas, electricity, LNG and oil markets. This blog will look behind the headlines and critically analyse the impact of market developments on the industry, with some more light-hearted posts thrown in for good humour.
Spot LNG Prices strengthened in the second half of October on ongoing outages, before softening in the first half of November on increased production....
ReadSpot LNG prices continued to strengthen from mid-September to mid-October as the market takes an increasingly bullish turn on the back of unexpected p...
ReadSpot LNG prices strengthened from mid-August to mid-September on the back of ongoing repair work in Australia and after a hurricane swept through the ...
ReadSpot LNG prices for front-month cargoes started to climb from their previous rock-bottom levels during the four weeks from mid-July to mid-August. Hig...
ReadThe ICIS Chemical connections blog delves into the chemicals and commodities behind some of the world’s biggest companies. Daniel tracks and provides analysis on 167 companies in the oil and gas, commodities, chemicals, speciality chemicals, plastics, packaging and fertilizers markets and Jeremy analyses macro and micro trends affecting the North American chemicals industry, from olefins, aromatics and solvents to general-purpose and engineered plastics.
The Democrat Party sweep of the Georgia runoff senatorial elections this week means President-elect Joseph Biden will take office on 20 January with his party in control of both houses of Congress and thus an easier path to enacting the policies on which he campaigned. The blog previously outlined some possibilities for pandemic-recovery economic stimulus...
US president-elect Joseph Biden has called the recently passed $900bn second round of coronavirus-related economic stimulus a down-payment to what he ...
ReadA lot can change in 30 days. Thirty days ago, US President Donald Trump felt confident he was on his way to a second term, while election opponent Jos...
ReadFinding common ground for US Republicans and Democrats is as difficult as ever during these hyper-partisan times, but if there has been one subject th...
ReadThis is the first of a series of blog posts where I will examine the environmental paradigm shift and what it means for the petrochemicals industry. T...
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