By John Richardson THE TOP chart shows that global chemicals industry operating rates fell to just 78.3% in November, even though companies up down the industry’s value chain were building inventory ahead of expected New Year price rises. This was in response to all the excitement generated by expectations of an OPEC-Russia deal to reduce […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Donald Trump And The Polyethylene Industry: What Happens Next
By John Richardson EVERYTHING started going very well for the global polyethylene (PE) business from the end of 2014/early 2015 if you look at the spreads, or differentials, between naphtha costs and PE pricing. Spreads are only a blunt instrument to measure real profits. But both spreads and integrated naphtha-based margins have reached historic highs since this turning […]
Trump, China’s Geographic Realities And The Risks Ahead
By John Richardson DONALD Trump doesn’t read that many books. But one book that he should read (assuming he hasn’t done already,and so apologies in advance if I am wrong) is Tim Marshall’s excellent Prisoners of Geography. The chapter on China, for instance, argues that: China’s ‘Nine Dash Line’, which in 2013 became ten dashes […]
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