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Chemicals and the Economy

China battles to achieve a ‘soft landing’

China’s economy has been on steroids for the past 2 years. Faced with the loss of export sales after the financial crisis began in 2008, the government doubled bank lending overnight (red column above). It also introduced a $580bn stimulus programme (13% of GDP). This included subsidised sales of electrical appliances, and was great news […]

The journey of the plastic bag

Plastic waste is an issue that doesn’t go away. And, of course, the plastics industry is unfairly blamed for it. After all, the industry does not drop plastic bags on the street, leaving them to go who knows where. Thus the blog welcomes the above spoof documentary from the Santa Monica ‘Heal the Bay’ group. […]

Japan falls into recession, again

Japan’s ageing population has led to slow economic growth for many years. It has battled for years to try and boost domestic demand, with only limited success, as the chart of GDP growth from the Wall Street Journal shows. Occasional bursts of growth (green column) are only followed by more red ink. Thus the economy […]

Europe’s supply-led ethylene market continues

Q1 saw near record margins for European petchem producers. And there was also a scramble for product, as buyers rushed to secure product ahead of feedstock price-related increases. But this remained a supply-led market. As the chart above shows, based on APPE data, Q1 production (red triangle) was just 5.1 million tonnes. It was slightly […]

Background to the New Normal eBook

The blog was interviewed today by ICIS’ Will Beacham, on the launch of its new eBook ‘Boom, Gloom and the New Normal’, jointly authored with John Richardson. Please click here if you would like to download a free copy of Chapter 1.

Boom, Gloom and the New Normal published today

Today, the blog is proud to publish the first Chapter of its new eBook: ‘Boom, Gloom and the New Normal: how Western BabyBoomers are changing global chemical demand patterns, again’ It is co-authored with ICIS’ John Richardson of Asian Chemical Connections. A new chapter will be published each month. Please click here for Chapter 1. […]

Downturn Alert shows prices keep falling

It is now 4 weeks since the blog launched its IeC Downturn Alert. Since then, as the chart shows (based on ICIS pricing reports): • Brent (blue dotted line) is down 11% • Naphtha (red) is down 13% in Europe • Benzene (green) is down 9% in Europe • HDPE export (purple) is down 7% […]

US housing starts disappoint, again

US housing used to be one of the largest chemical markets in the world. In 2006 it was worth $35bn, with 2.2 million new homes each using $16k of chemicals, according to American Chemistry Council (ACC) estimates. Yet as the chart above shows, it has completely failed to recover since the financial crisis began: • […]

The tide of European debt default keeps advancing

A thousand years ago, the Viking King Canute had himself carried into the sea by his courtiers. He was the most powerful king of his time. But by showing that he could not turn back the incoming waves, he hoped they would understand that he was not all-powerful. This is a lesson still to be […]

ExxonMobil suggests $60-$70/bbl oil

The CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, has provided powerful support for the blog’s long-held view that oil prices are well out of line with fundamentals. He told the US Senate that: “If you said: ‘If I had access to the next marketable barrel, what would it cost?’, its going to be somewhere in the $60 […]

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