There are strong rumours circulating that the hopelessly fragmented Indonesian petrochemical industry might undergo some more restructuring. This would follow Titan Petrochemical’s purchase of troubled polyethylene producer PT Peni, now renamed PT Titan, for a bargain price. Common ownership between sole cracker operator Chandra Asri and its numerous downstream companies would go a long way […]
Asian Chemical Connections
The Grim Reaper readies himself
See below for an extended analysis of why everything is about to go wrong. Looking forward to picking up some bargain chemical shares over the next two years and some cheap US and UK property! As the Asian head of M&A and acqusitions for a major bank told me this morning: “Wnen everyone tells me […]
China lending restrictions to hit petchems?
China annnounced on Wednesday that it had shifted its monetary policy stance to “tight” from “prudent” in response to food-price driven inflation, soaring real-estate prices, the surge in local stock markets and continued strong growth in industrial investment. How this policy shift will be implemented remains unclear, but media reports suggest that total bank-lending growth […]
The beginning of the end?
For three wonderful years, petrochemical producers have had the pricing power thanks to tight supply and demand balances and very strong growth economic growth. Now with crude close to pushing past the pyschologically important $100 a barrel barrier and construction sectors in the West slowing down on the sub-prime crisis, the polyvinyl chloride industry in […]
Will free forecasting have its Wiki way?
Now, please be patient – the sting is in the tail. This could have great relevance to your business….. The industry in which I work – the media – has been decimated by the Internet with billions of dollars of earnings and hundreds of thousands of livelihoods sucked out of traditional publishing by online advertising. […]
Asia needs a recesssion
Asian industry leaders are playing lip service to the environmental crisis the world confronts . George Monbiot, the excellent author and journalist, argues that what the West needs is a recession to give the planet a breather.Asia also needs a substantial economic slowdown to give policymakers and technology developers more time.
The flawed “science” of forecasting
Maybe I’ve been to too many conferences this year, and indeed over the last decade, and have seen too many forecasts go wrong. Call me cynical, or plain wrong, but………..
Can polymers rescue the Mile High Club?
Maybe Singapore airlines has got the wrong end of the stick by trying to ban first class passengers in their new cabins in the sky from indulging in a little hanky panky. Perhaps the answer is to equip the walls of these private cabins with super sound-absorbing polymers (polyurethanes, maybe?). Any suggestions from polymer experts […]
More arguments against M-E price setting
The article below, from Sean Milmo of ICB, makes the case that the Middle East will not be able or willing to lead pricing in Europe during the next downturn because of the control that European producers will be able to exert on their home market.
The Middle East may set polyolefins pricing
This was the warning from Bob Bauman of Nexant ChemSystems at last week’s 25th Annual Petrochemical Conference in Houston, Texas. Read below for some rather gloomy predictions of where markets could be heading in 2011-12
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