By John Richardson THERE is a lot of talk right now about now China’s coal-to-olefins (CTO) capacity additions are slowing down on rising concerns over the emissions produced by the technology. A further factor behind the widespread view that capacity additions are slowing down is forecasts that CTO margins will weaken over the next few […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Polyethylene Is Just Another Commodity – It Is Nothing Special
By John Richardson THERE is a story circulating out there that polyethylene (PE) is a “special commodity” in that it is not tied to the downturn in other commodities that we have seen over the last year. Whilst most people are coming around to the sensibel view that iron ore demand growth will never be […]
China PP Exports Jump 38% On Jobs Drive
Polyolefins markets in Asia are not behaving in the way that they used to behave. For value-added analysis of these changes, and for price and margin forecasts for the region, contact john.richardson@icis.com for details of how to subscribe to our Asian Polypropylene and Asian Polyethylene forecast reports. By John Richardson NOT everything in […]
China’s Environment: Business As Usual Not An Option
By John Richardson SONG Wei, an environmentalist from Hunan province, told the BBC in July: “No more economic growth stained by blood. Under the new environment law, every factory has to be approved before it’s built. We’re putting an end to unregulated chaos.” (China introduced a New Environmental Protection Law in January). The cynics will, of […]
China Pollution And The Tianjin Blast: Implications For Global Chemicals
By John Richardson JUST about everyone now recognises, albeit very belatedly, that China isn’t going to grow in the future in the way that it did in the past because of the bad-debt issues left behind by the 2008-2013 credit binge. It is now accepted wisdom that Beijing simply cannot more pour money down the […]
China Exceeds US 20th Century Cement Output In Just Two Years
By John Richardson CHINA produced more cement in 2011 and 2012 than the US produced in the whole of the 20th century. Yes, that’s right, China produced more cement in just two years than the States produced in 100 years. Statistics such as this leave the blog scratching its head as to how anybody could […]
How China’s “Social Contract” Is Changing
By John Richardson ON this particular day, it is worth thinking some more about how the social contract between China’s leaders and its people is evolving. Much of the commentary focusing on 4 June 1989 has described how China’s leaders have maintained social stability ever since, partly through rapid economic growth. But too many […]
Dear Mr Abbott, What On Earth Have You Done?
By John Richardson INNOVATION has to be the cornerstone of Australia’s economy from now on because of these two reasons: 1.) The China-led resources boom is over and so Australia can no longer just dig stuff out of the ground and send it to China. 2.) Australia, like all developed countries, has an ageing population. […]
China Reconsiders Petchems Targets
By John Richardson CHINA has long set targets for petrochemicals self-sufficiency in each of its five-year economic plans – and those targets have been pretty aggressive as the chart above, showing the recent rise in ethylene production, indicates. These have involved often-realised plans to raise independence from exports in a particular product to a specified […]
Xi Jinping Further Underlines China’s “New Normal”
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 […]
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