CHINA’S president Xi Jinping, in a landmark speech at the weekend, talked about the “New Normal” of lower economic growth and a different type of growth altogether. He qualified this different type of growth as follows: “Through innovation and technological development, the country should push for the transformation from ‘Made in China’ to ‘Created in […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China Copper, Chemicals And The Interconnections
By John Richardson IT is the interconnections that matter and the trouble is that few people seem to have adequately thought about the interconnections between the various dysfunctional parts of the Chinese economy. For example; A lot of the main players in copper financing are also involved in the property market, according to this FT […]
China’s Urbanisation Myth Bites The Dust
By John Richardson THE blog would again be in the position of being able to afford a yacht in Monte Carlo if it had a dollar, even in an Australian dollar these days, for every time it has heard the phrase “urbanisation will underpin long-term growth in China”. But just as some of the other […]
India Can Be Plastic Fantastic
By John Richardson THE blog has recently heard India described as “very disappointing” by several overseas executives of major polyolefins producers. When pressed about what they meant, they told us: Economic growth over the last few years has been much weaker than expected. This has been the result of infrastructure constraints and lack of foreign […]
China: “Just When I Thought I Was Out….”
By John Richardson THE BLOG woke up this morning determined to write about something else, but, as Michael Corleone said in Godfather III, “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”. What stopped us writing about US propane prices and what this might mean for Chinese propane dehydrogenation-polypropylene (PP) start-ups this […]
The US Patient Needs An Operation
By John Richardson THE Fed’s quantitative easing (QE) programme hasn’t worked because, to use an analogy, it has been equivalent to pumping drugs into a patient that needs major surgery in order to fully recover. A steady flow of drugs creates the illusion that the patient is fine, but once the drug supply is reduced […]
Dow And Commodities-Specialities Integration
By John Richardson IS diversification itself a problem in commodity chemicals and speciality companies with operations under one roof, or is it more how this diversification is handled? This is a question raised by this excellent Insight article, from the blog’s ICIS colleague Joe Chang, which revisits the issue of hedge fund Third Point’s […]
China Labour Markets And Automation
By John Richardson CHINA’s blue collar workers are in a very strong position, as we discussed in our 19 December post. They are benefiting from an ageing population that has already resulted in a decline in the size of China’s working population. Thanks to the laws of supply and demand, wage rates are going up […]
Researching China Credit And Growth
By John Richardson A lot of the focus in polyethylene (PE) markets at the moment is on supply and on what impact this might have on the key China market during 2014. Crunching this data will always remain a crucial part of assessing all petrochemicals markets, but, in China, do we need other tools as […]
3D Printing Likely To Change Just About Everything
By John Richardson 3D printing will very probably force manufacturers, including those who make chemicals and polymers, to build entirely new business models. Here is why: The young in Western societies will be poorer because of less aggregate demand as a result of the retirement of the Babyboomers. They will need to save a lot […]
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