LAST WEEK I challenged whether the longstanding “put option” for petrochemicals companies and investors would still apply to China 2022.
The put option rests on the well-proven notion that the worst things get in the short term, the better the immediate outlook because Beijing always rides to the rescue with big economic stimulus.
The challenge I posed to the put option was that China might only tinker around the edges of its Common Prosperity economic reforms.
By John Richardson WE NOW HAVE an agreement amongst 175 countries, reached in Nairobi in Kenya last week, to develop a legally binding treaty to deal with plastic waste. This was something I called for last year. At the time I said we needed global limits on plastic waste that would be as important for […]
By John Richardson IF WE ARE involved in a new protracted Cold War, this will change just about everything for the petrochemicals industry. Or, of course, we could go back to the Old Normal. Corporate planners must therefore press on with drawing up short, medium and long-term scenarios and then apply these scenarios to tactics […]
To follow all the breaking news on the crisis and the implications for petrochemicals and energy markets, please click here for the ICIS subscription topic page. If you need a trial of ICIS news, please let me know. By John Richardson WHETHER OIL PRICES will rise to a high of $135/bbl – the worst-case warning highlighted in […]
To follow all the breaking news on the crisis and the implications for petrochemicals and energy markets, please click here for the ICIS subscription topic page. If you need a trial of ICIS news, please let me know. By John Richardson FRANCIS FUKAYAMA famously wrote about the “end of history” after the Berlin Wall came […]
The petrochemicals or chemicals (depending what you prefer) transition to Net Zero is both connected and different from the energy transition for reasons I’ll detail in a series of blog posts, starting today with a few headline thoughts on how global margin and cost curve positions my change over the next few years – and […]
By John Richardson CONFUSED? If so, you are fully across what’s happening in the global polyethylene (PE) market. Anyone who isn’t confused is likely taking a vacation on Mars with no means of communicating with Planet Earth. The chart below is a case in point. What you can see from the data are actual US […]
Today I complete my series of posts on China’s polyolefins markets in 2021 with outlooks for 2022. This post focuses on low-density polyethylene (LDPE), following my earlier posts on polypropylene (PP), high-density PE (HDPE) and linear low-density PE (LLDPE). By John Richardson DO YOU want the good news or the bad news first? This is […]
By John Richardson THE GREAT NEWS, as I discussed last month, is that the more 100 countries, including the US, are thought to favour a treaty being proposed at the next UN Environment Assembly that would set targets for reducing plastic waste in the environment. A date in has now been set for the meeting […]
China’s LLDPE demand grew by just 1% last year, below market expectations, with further 2022 downward pressure likely on Common Prosperity and Zero COVID
