My saintly mother called yesterday to complain that the organisers of her Portuguese river cruise holiday were hammering it with an 80% surcharge on account of "higher fuel costs". Saintly but not stupid, she smartly took her business elsewhere, namely to clever operators Saga Holidays who were offering an upper deck cabin at the original price, and guaranteeing no fuel surcharges.And in my own brush with fuel economy, I spent the weekend in the car showrooms of west London, looking for a tiny and fuel-efficient vehicle to replace my heavy duty German gas-guzzler, which has sadly guzzled its last litre of unleaded after a drunk driver drove into the back of us.
Despite news from America that the whole population is downsizing to what they call "compact" cars, I can reveal that London's car showrooms are empty. No-one is buying cars, regardless of size, and despite wild promotions offering free cinema tickets to see "Wall.E". Just who is going to buy a car on the basis of a free trip to see a kids' film anyway?
No-one is buying cars or houses, and according to my good friend Malcolm in the jewellery business, we are not even buying jewellery to cheer ourselves up.
Still, now that "staying in is the new going out", we are buying lots of home delivery pizzas, according to news today of bumper results from Dominos Pizzas.
And even while water cooler conversations are dominated by how much we paid to fill up the car this morning, it seems that one chemicals-related sector is experiencing a boom. Toy-maker Hasbro, America's second-largest toy company and manufacturers of top plastic toys GI Joe and Playskool, announced today that year-on-year Q2 sales had risen by 13% overall, and 15% outside North America. So while we won't buy ourselves new cars, homes or jewellery, and won't even go out for dinner, we just won't stint on keeping our children happy with new toys. It can't be all bad then.
For serious articles on how chemical companies are coping with fuel surcharges, click on Nigel's article on Evonik's surcharges, Larry's on US acrylates surcharges, and many more on www.icis.com.
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