By John Richardson ALL SORTS of experts keep telling us that identifying the world’s problems is incredibly complex. But it, is in, fact, incredibly simple – all you have to do is to meet Basic Needs such as coping with ageing populations and providing sufficient water, electricity, shelter, healthcare and education. Satisfying these needs does, however, require the […]
Asian Chemical Connections
Tomorrow’s Economic Supercycle: Only If We Build A lot More Toilets
By John Richardson AFTER my presentation yesterday during the 4th ICIS Asian Polyolefins Conference in Bangkok, someone asked me a very good question: “Where is the next Economic Supercycle going to come from?” My answer was as follows: Quite possibly from the developing world. But countries that have more mobile phones than toilets will only be able to […]
Why The Political Populists Are Being Successful
By John Richardson HERE are some sobering statistics that mainstream politicians and economic policymakers should take note of: The real, inflation-adjusted incomes of two-thirds of households in 25 advanced economies were flat or fell between 2005 and 2014 compared with just 2% in the previous decade. Only in London and the southeast region of the […]
Innovation: No More Time Left To Lose
Source of picture: http://whyfiles.org/ By John Richardson MY colleague Nigel Davis has written an excellent Insight article which highlights how some chemicals companies are seeking to respond to changing patterns. As we have discussed before, Bayer Material Science is adapting its portfolio of products in response to the megatrends – demographics, energy conservation, […]
China and India: No Guarantees
MOST chemical companies now believe it is inevitable that China and India will reach developed economy status. Many even believe that their strong growth will mean “the end of economic cycles”. But as we discuss in Chapter 6 of ‘Boom, Gloom and the New Normal’, the new ICIS/ International eChem/ICIS eBook, there are three major risks […]
There Is No Going Back
By John Richardson “IF we build polymer capacity in India the demand will come,” a very senior industry executive told the blog last year. He amplified this statement by explaining that greater availability of plastics would always stimulate strong demand growth for low-end packaging materials etc in emerging markets in general, as the poor became […]