By John Richardson HAVE FEEDSTOCK will build has been the route to success for many years in the petrochemicals business. If you have never experienced anything else then a change in the paradigm is very hard to come to terms with. What often instead happens is that a new paradigm is simply rejected in favour […]
Asian Chemical Connections
China propylene: 6.7m tonne demand hole threatens to swallow-up new projects
By John Richardson CONVENTIONAL opinion is that the global propylene market is moving from a balanced position to a balanced-to-tight position in 2018-2020. This will justify a significant wave of new investments is a common view. It is time to think again. We had expected Chinese propylene demand to grow by 6.9% in 2018 over […]
How To Grow Sales In A Deflationary World
By John Richardson CHINA hugely increased its propylene and derivatives capacity to the point where by 2011, it became the first region or country where downstream propylene consumption surpassed that of ethylene. This didn’t mean booming actual demand for propylene and what it is used to make. Instead, it meant that lots of “empty factories” […]
China, Polyolefins And The New Five-Year-Plan
By John Richardson CHINA is still a planned economy, but everything doesn’t always work out as planned – hence the above chart, which shows that: Installed ethylene capacity will by the end of this year be around 3.5 million tonnes/year lower than the government’s target of approximately 26 million tonnes/year. This was the capacity Beijing […]