The Canton Trade Fair Source of picture: Blawg.lehman.com This interesting article from Bloomberg says that while petrochemical output in China rose in August, textile production actually contracted. We don’t as yet have any breakdown for specific petrochemicals. If the overall increase includes higher aromatics-to-synthetic fibres output then the gamble that the chain has taken on […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Even China Polyester Rates Rise
Source of Picture: ChinaMonthlyReview.Org Polyester operating rates in China have started to rise on anticipation that the global economic recovery has arrived, according to Leonard DeGuzman, chemicals consultant with DeWitt & Co. Is this another example of a dangerous price bubble or further proof that we are really emerging from the woods? “The impact of […]
What I Want To Know in H2 – Part Two
Garbage out, garbage in Source of Picture: The Daily Telegraph Here goes for the second part of this series. Is there anybody out there who can help? How will the ongoing availability of recycled material affect the pricing power of virgin resins? (We have the data to show that imports of scrap polyethylene (PE) and […]
PTA futures growing in influence?
Source of picture: 1st-commoditytrading.us It’s only one comment from one consultant, but this is what he said today about the growing role of the Zhenghou Commodity Exchange‘s purified terephthalic acid (PTA) futures contract. “PTA futures have been exerting a huge impact on spot pricing starting 2H July. “We haven’t seen any increase in physical demand […]
China inventory sentiment survey
Peering through the fog On the theme of data again, in the ideal world it might be possible to send thousands of hardworking foot solders out into the field in China to chase down every warehouse of polymers and count every single pallet of polyolefins. Not not really – don’t talk nonsense; in reality, this […]
Lies, damned lies and data
“Excuse me, are you sure about that?” Source of Picture: bshort.org A wise man said to me recently: “All data is wrong; all you can do is make sure you are consistently wrong”. Now this is absolutely not meant to be any criticism whatsoever of what consultants or other market observers do for a living. […]
How to make money in a downturn Part 1
John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, antidumping petitions, trade protection, living in cloud cuckoo land
Waiting for the dead cat to bounce
Free-falling felines, dead-count bound, chemical-market rebounds, financial meltdown
All those wasted lives – but at least you got your bonus
Mr Obscenely Rich Got Out In Tiime Banker, please look into these eyes, see the pain from the last Great Depression and maybe you will give some of your obscenely huge bonus towards poverty relief. And perhaps also you’ll be willing to pay for all the counselling that the children of this new Great Depression […]
The West can still be the best
It is very easy assume that Asia ex-Japan will eventually catch up with the West and become as good at “solution” chemicals as the West. I am excluding Japan because it has long been a major speciality player. All the money that China, for example, is pouring into its state-run research institutes would seem to […]
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