Chemicals & The Economy

BMW, the world's largest luxury car manufacturer, warned today that it is no longer immune from the global downturn:

'Business conditions for the automobile industry deteriorated sharply again in the second quarter due to further ongoing steep rises in oil and raw material prices, the weakness of the US dollar, the impact of the international financial crisis and a weaker US economy,' it told investors.

BMW is now planning to cut costs and reduce production. Both actions will have a major impact on chemical companies' sales and profit. Most worryingly, BMW Chairman Norbert Reithofer also believes '2009 will be another difficult year, full of challenges'.

Paul Ray's excellent ICIS PE margin report provides plenty of food for thought this week. The chart above shows that European LDPE prices (the red line) have moved up quite sharply since June. But almost all of this improvement has been captured by cracker operators. Margins for integrated players (in yellow) recovered quite nicely, but standalone producers (in blue) have seen only a slight improvement.

There seems to have been no response from Iran to the 2 week deadline set by the US and Europe on the nuclear issue. Over the weekend, Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said 'the Iranian nation would not retreat one iota from its rights.' Earlier, Israel's deputy Prime Minister, Shaul Mofaz, had also taken a hard line, claiming that Iran was simply pursuing a strategy of 'buying time', and adding that Israel believed 'Iran will reach enrichment capability' by 2009.

Although such statements may be a cover for more substantive discussions in private, the rhetoric is not encouraging. Mofaz added, for example, 'it's a race against time and time is winning'. Early last month, when oil prices were at $150/bbl, I suggested that they could easily slip to $100/bbl if diplomacy worked. Equally, I worried that they could rise to $200/bbl if military action took place, and Iran blocked oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz. Hedging against both possible outcomes still seems a prudent strategy for chemical companies to adopt.

I noted in June that P&G were reviewing their global supply chain strategy, as a result of higher oil prices. Now a study by Canadian Bank CIBC suggests the rise in shipping costs equals a '9% tariff on trade', adding that 'the cost of moving goods, not the cost of tariffs' is now the 'largest barrier to global trade'.

Chemical companies have pioneered globalisation over the past 20 years. But the cost of shipping a 40 foot container from Shanghai to the US has more than doubled in recent years, from $3k to $8k. Ships are also travelling slower, to reduce fuel costs. Whilst consumers worry about the carbon footprint caused by global product movements.

Unlike gasoline, which is generally produced for local use, most chemicals made in Asia are actually consumed in the West. So although any move to repatriate production would take years to fully implement, the impact on exporting countries could be large. Currently high Asian growth rates could reduce substantially - by some estimates, for example, 80% of Guangdong's GDP is actually export-related.

A year ago, it was fashionable to claim that the Asian economies had 'decoupled' from the West. Any slowdown would simply pass them by. Last December, I noted a rare dissenting voice, Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley, who commented that 'decoupling is a good story, but its not going to work going forward'. In March, I noted that 'away from the headlines, the Shanghai stock exchange has been collapsing', and was already down 44% from its peak.

I noted last month that German industrial production fell 2.4% in May, and that Chancellor Angela Merkel was expecting 'a significant fall' in economic growth for 2009. This fall now seems to be already underway. Industrial output fell by a further 2.9% in June, and for the seventh month in a row - the longest period of decline for nearly 20 years. German officials are also indicating that GDP fell by around 1% in Q2.

The specific problem in Germany is a lack of export orders. In Spain, the economy is also facing recession, as housing market problems spread to the wider economy. Manufacturing output fell 9% in June, and H1 industrial output was down 3.1%. As a result, the Bank of Spain is now forecasting GDP at 0% for 2008.

A multi-year global downturn seems more and more likely, as the major Western economies all appear to be running out of steam simultaneously.

Chemical company CFOs need to step up their monitoring of customers' creditworthiness. That's the clear message today from ratings agency Moody's, who report that corporate defaults are rising sharply.

According to Moody's Director, Kenneth Emery, 'the pace of corporate defaults increased considerably in July as economic conditions weakened and more companies experienced financial distress. Under our baseline model forecast scenario, the global default rate is expected to climb sharply over the next twelve months to 6.3%, while it could reach 10% in a downside scenario of a protracted U.S. recession.'

The credit crunch began a year ago. At that time, the blog was very much in a minority when worrying that it might turn into something big enough to impact 'the real economy'. A year later, it is fascinating to review the crunch's impact so far, and how people's attitudes have changed:

Tighter lending standards, and higher spreads for borrowers, are continuing to create headwinds for the US economy. As far back as January, senior loan officers at major US banks were reporting that they were tightening mortgage lending standards. Yesterday, the latest quarterly US Federal Reserve survey showed that 60% of banks have now tightened their standards 'in all major loan categories'. And, the Fed reports, most expected to keep tightening into 2009, whilst 80% of banks said they had increased the spread they charged to corporate borrowers.

US and European auto sales fell again last month.

GM reported total US sales down 27% versus 2007, due to a 'challenging US economic environment'
Toyota were down 19%, with Lexus sales badly hit, down 25%
Ford were down 13%, and said they 'expected H2 to be more challenging than H1, as economic and credit conditions weaken'.
Chrysler were down 29%, in spite of their offer to reduce gasoline prices to $2.99/gal for new car buyers.

European auto sales also continued to weaken, falling 6.7%, with the UK down 13% and Spain down 28%.

Chemical company CFOs will also have taken note of the suggestion from accountants Grant Thornton that one third of US auto suppliers could go bankrupt if current conditions continue. 'Any new production cutbacks will make supplier cash flow problems more difficult to manage', they warned in their latest Review.

OPEC's oil output hit an all-time record in July at 32.8Mbd, due to higher volumes from Saudi and Iran. The Saudi increase to 9.55Mbd was in line with their pledge at the Jeddah summit in June to raise output to 9.7Mbd. But the Iranian increase appears to have been a one-off, as the country sold off stockpiles that had been built up whilst refineries underwent seasonal maintenance. And on the demand side, Chinese consumption continued to boom, rising above the 8Mbd level for the first time to reach 8.3Mbd in June.

According to the International Energy Agency's latest monthly report, some demand destruction is now taking place in Western countries, as a result of higher oil prices. It notes that 'even if retail prices ease, it seems unlikely that motorists who have purchased smaller cars will revert to gas-guzzling vehicles'. But the IEA still expects global demand to grow by 790kbd this year, as emerging countries and OPEC continue to subsidise domestic oil product prices.

Pimco, the world's largest bond investors, are worried about rising inflation. Their main concern is that many Asian and Middle Eastern countries had 'anchored' their currency to the US$. 'With that anchor gone', they comment, 'due to the US Federal Reserve's focus on preventing the US financial system from falling into a depression-style downward spiral, many countries find themselves anchorless'. They regard this as 'wholly inappropriate for emerging markets that are growing in aggregate around 7%, and whose inflation has picked up to double digits in many cases'.

What is the outlook for the global economy over the next few years? Are we likely to see a continuation of the 2003-7 Global Boom (the purple line)? Will growth reduce to the average level seen between 1980-2000 (the green line)? Or are we at the start of a multi-year Global Downturn (the red line)? This is a key question for the petrochemical industry, with its own growth dependent on increasing GDP/capita.

We have just published a major new Study, 'Feedstocks for Profit', that provides a completely fresh and integrated view of the key issues facing the industry, under these 3 potential Scenarios. It focuses on the main 'building blocks' (ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene and paraxylene) and their derivatives. It concludes that the industry is about to go through a period of increasing change, which will make decision-making more complex. This will create major challenges for producers and consumers:

• Change. The world economy may well be slowing down, after the recent boom period. At the same time, new petchem capacity in the Middle East and China is about to come onstream, whilst the US is increasing its refining capacity and gasoline production.
• Complexity. Markets are becoming more volatile. Competition is likely to increase within the main regions, as exporters find life much more difficult. Inter-polymer competition will also become more intense, as supply is increased by new capacity.
• Challenges. These developments create significant challenges. Integration (either physical or virtual), will be the critical success factor for the future. This will provide companies with the increased flexibility they will need to maximise their profits, at a time of increasing change and complexity.

A copy of this week's ICIS Chemical Business feature on the Study is available by clicking here ICB Aug08.pdf">, if you would like to read more about our Conclusions.

BASF have now reduced their 2008 GDP forecast from 2.8% to 2.4%. This may sound a small amount, but it means it is now in line with the Global Downturn Scenario set out in our Feedstocks for Profit Study. Previously, it had been just below our Base Case Scenario. CEO Jurgen Hambrecht still sounds confident, commenting that the world 'will still continue to grow respectably, even if not as fast as in the last two or three years'. But he cautions that BASF now think the 'wave-like effects of the subprime crisis' will last 'at least until H1 2009.

A year ago, the noted investment analyst, Jeremy Grantham, described the credit crisis as a 'slow motion train wreck'. The Financial Times has now updated the metaphor to describe what has happened since. It notes that train crashes happen more quickly than economic ones, and that there are pauses before the next carriage hits the one in front. It believes this explains how we have since 'moved from crisis to crisis, with rallies in between, as participants persuade themselves that the worst is over'.

Its conclusion is not encouraging for chemical companies. It expects that the problems in banking, housing and consumer markets will continue to play out 'in very slow motion'. As a result, it warns that 'we may have much longer to wait until the final impact has juddered through the train'.

When you're the richest man in the world, you can generally say what you think. Thus Warren Buffett reflected reality back in March, when he commented that 'by any commonsense definition, the US is in recession'. Yesterday, he probably ruffled a few more feathers when he told CNBC that he thought the US economy was still in recession, and 'could be worse' at the end of the year.

He also remarked that a 'financial crisis reveals which players have been swimming naked, because the tide goes out'. And, he added, 'we (have) found out that Wall Street has been kind of a nudist beach'. As a result, he expects both the US mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to require 'federal government help' to survive. He also expects more US banks to collapse as a result of 'failures where the bankers were dumb in what they did'.

China's growth rate is slowing quite sharply. Exports to the US grew just 9% in H1, half the 2007 rate. In addition, ICIS news has reported that China's important textile industry has seen a 25% decline in orders, whilst US polyethylene exports to China are also slowing. And the above chart showing China's latest Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) indicates the ratio of inventories to new orders has risen 45% since April.

Until recently, rapid growth in most Western housing and auto markets created a virtuous circle for chemical producers worldwide. Not only were these major sources of chemical demand in their own right. But as the blog noted last December, they also enabled an export boom to take place in China, due to its role as the world's leading manufacturer. In turn, this supported domestic growth and caused China's own import demand to jump. Now, unfortunately, we may be seeing a vicious circle develop, as slowing Western markets reduce China's export growth, and hence its GDP growth, in turn reducing its own import needs.

US house prices, according to today's S&P/Case-Shiller Index, are still falling quite sharply. As shown in the chart, they are now down 17% versus last year. The key influence, according to S&P, is that 'the markets that were the high-flyers during the recent real estate boom continue to be the ones that are leading the current decline'. Thus prices in Miami, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego are all down around 25%, whilst cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and Washington are 'only' down around 10%.

Housing is a vital market for chemical companies. It boomed in the US and other Western countries as credit standards were relaxed between 2003-7. Now it is at the centre of the credit crunch. Martin Feldstein, Harvard economics professor, and the man who chairs the Board that determines the duration of US recessions, is clearly very worried. Writing in the Financial Times today, he summarises the outlook as follows:

'The US economy is sliding into recession. Employment, industrial production and real incomes are declining. Monetary policy has little traction because of the dysfunctional credit markets and the collapse of housing. The fiscal policy of tax rebates failed to achieve a significant impact on consumer spending. The economy will continue to decline and the financial markets to deteriorate unless a policy is adopted to stop the downward spiral of house prices.'

Anyone preparing budgets for 2009-11 will need to include a Downside Case that covers what might happen to demand, and margins, if house prices do continue to fall.

Another policy maker has decided realism is the best policy when talking about the current credit crunch. China's Liu He started the trend earlier this month, by talking about the need for 'economic restructuring'. Now the UK's Finance Minister, Alistair Darling, has become the first western official to abandon reassurance and instead to focus on the reality of current problems.

His analysis is stark in tone, and acknowledges that the depth of the crisis is far worse that he had previously understood. He says:

• Today's economic times 'are the worst they've been in 60 years'
• The downturn 'will be more profound and long-lasting' that most people had expected

Some research in yesterday's Financial Times yesterday also highlights the depth of today's problems. Its shows that Merrill Lynch has already lost 25% of all the profits it has ever made, since it became a listed company back in 1971. And, of course, there are probably still more losses to come, as global housing markets remain weak.