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Chemicals and the Economy

Shell focuses on profitable upgrading of hydrocarbons

Business models have been changing over the past decade in the chemical industry, as illustrated in the above chart. Initially, the dotcom era began to put pressure on former ‘specialty businesses’, as customers discovered they were paying over the odds for technical support that was no longer required. The internet made it much easier to […]

Global chemical production “slowing”

Global chemical production seems to be “slowing“, according to latest data from the American Chemistry Council (ACC). They note that total chemical output, including pharmaceuticals, rose just 0.7% between July and August, against a 9.4% rise versus August 2009. The good news is that the ACC believe “at the headline level, the previous peak has […]

Indonesia consolidates, as China’s imports reduce

The battle lines are definitely being drawn up in South East Asia, following Honam’s July move to acquire Malaysia’s Titan. The context for this is Asian producers need to develop new strategies, as export opportunities to China dry up. China’s ethylene production grew 26% in H1 versus 2009, with Sinopec increasing its output by 41%. […]

Traders focus on correlations, not fundamentals

Investors on Wall Street are no longer bothering with the boring detail of company performance. That’s the conclusion from a new study by Barclays Capital, on the correlation between movements in the S&P 500 and individual stocks. Instead, they are piling into the ‘correlation trade’, as high-speed computers now often account for over 60% of […]

Major changes underway in chemicals markets

This week’s ICIS Chemical Business includes the blog’s article on the changes taking place in global markets for ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene and paraxylene. These have a potential impact on buyers and sellers all the way down the various value chains. The article updates the blog’s major series on these issues in the summer, and […]

US consumers turn to Dollar stores

Major changes are taking place in US retailing. They echo the changing focus of emerging Asian markets. Taken together, these must have important implications for chemical demand. US retail markets have been evolving over the past 3 years, as the Crisis began to hit, and the baby-boomers moved beyond the peak 25 – 54 age […]

Japan leads round of competitive devaluations

The blog remains very concerned that, overall, the economic policies adopted during the current Crisis are leading the world economy to the worst possible outcome. This outcome is totally predictable. Indeed it has been predicted by reputable experts for some years. Yet most policymakers still seem intent on dealing with symptoms rather than causes. As […]

‘Cash for clunkers’ a waste of money

Last year, the US administration spent $2.85bn on supporting the sale of 360k autos, by paying owners of older vehicles to destroy them with sodium silicate. At the time, most people in the chemical industry, and many experts, regarded this ‘cash for clunkers’ programme as being a complete waste of money. And they became even […]

The Great Disappointment follows the Great Recession

The good news this week was that the body responsible for dating US recessions, the National Bureau of Economic Research, finally declared that the so-called Great Recession was over. It was the longest since the Depression, running from December 2007 to June 2009, and twice as deep as in 1981-2, causing a 4% loss in […]

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