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• Slaves to market frenzy

  A consultant once told me a wonderful story - so wonderful I don't even care whether it's true or not - about how the monthly European benzene price in the 1950s was calculated based on the US price once the latest issue of Chemical Market Reporter... Posted Aug 12 2008, 01:01 PM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: Economics, oil prices, Business, Markets, Google, Managing people, Knowledge management, Company Strategy, James Burke, Connections, attention span, financial speculation, Atlantic.com

• Oil prices - the Iran factor

  Oil price movements are now dominated by the Iranian nuclear issue. Last month , they jumped $10/bbl to $146/bbl as news leaked of Israel's training exercise against Iran's nuclear sites. I've since talked to someone who was on holiday in... Posted Jul 13 2008, 11:49 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Financial Events, Futures trading, oil prices, Iraq, Iran, Israel

• Israel's training exercise worries oil markets

  The US has now confirmed what oil traders have been suspecting - that Israel is preparing for a bombing raid on Iran's alleged nuclear facilities. According to Bloomberg and the New York Times , around 100 Israeli aircraft took part in a full-scale... Posted Jun 24 2008, 07:18 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: USA, Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, Futures trading, oil prices, Saudi Arabia, Iran

• 'Roll-through' pricing reappears

  Linda Naylor, ICIS's polymers guru, has just written a market analysis that took me straight back to 1980. She described how current feedstock prices meant that 'many of Europe's cracker operators were losing money', and noted that Dow... Posted Jun 18 2008, 04:16 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Financial Events, oil prices, global downturn, polymers, pricing power

• Monday, Monday

  Monday, Monday, can't trust that day Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way Oh Monday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be These 'Mamas and Papas' lyrics certainly sum up Monday this week: • Oil prices went to another... Posted Jun 17 2008, 01:29 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Financial Events, Futures trading, oil prices, global downturn, US subprime crisis, Citigroup

• The Saudi oil 'summit'

  There seems to be remarkably little information about Saudi Arabia's planned oil 'summit' next Sunday in Jeddah. The first news of it seemed to be released rather informally, via a 'junior official' at the Oil Ministry. Since then... Posted Jun 16 2008, 07:15 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, oil prices, Saudi Arabia, Khursaniyah

• Oil hits $140/bbl

  Chemical companies are still getting used to the idea that crude is trading above $100/bbl. For many of them, this was a complete shock, as many had believed the consensus view and budgeted for a $70/bbl average in 2008. Now, however, worse news is in... Posted May 21 2008, 11:23 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: China, India, Economic growth, Oil markets, Financial Events, Futures trading, oil prices, OPEC, Matthew Simmons, TOTAL

• Saudi to boost oil supply

  Oil markets could become more volatile again, on news today that Saudi is to pump an extra 3000kbd of oil in June. Other Gulf States including Kuwait and UAE may follow its lead. On the face of it, this is good news for the chemical industry, as it should... Posted May 17 2008, 02:29 PM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: China, Economic growth, Oil markets, Financial Events, oil prices, Leverage, Saudi Arabia

• OPEC suggests $200/bbl oil

  OPEC used to believe that its fortunes were tied to the health of the global economy. But as I noted last month , its current policy is more reminiscent of ‘the difficult times of 1973/4 and 1989.80’. The evidence for this statement is mounting. Saudi... Posted Apr 30 2008, 11:25 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, Financial Events, oil prices, Leverage, OPEC, global downturn, King Abdullah, President Bush, Naimi

• Every silver lining has a cloud

  I am currently lucky enough to be visiting Asia every month. This also gives me a chance to ‘check the temperature’ as regards people’s outlook on the economy. And I think its fair to say that the mood has moved from optimism to caution. Good news is... Posted Apr 13 2008, 12:11 PM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: China, Economic growth, Oil markets, Financial Events, housing, oil prices, subprime crisis

• History will surely repeat itself

  The mood at the recent NPRA International Petrochemical Conference in San Antonio, Texas, was mixed, despite all the economic gloom. Some producers said they were still making money - especially those selling into manufacturing sectors benefiting from... Posted Apr 08 2008, 08:05 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: Economics, China, technology, aromatics, Japan, oil prices, Polyolefins, Projects, Business, Oil & Gas, Markets, US recession, gasoline, US housing

• ExxonMobil regains top place

  After 5 months, ExxonMobil is once again the world’s largest company by market capitalisation. PetroChina had overtaken it last November, but has since lost half its value in China’s stock market decline. Today, it is worth $453bn, versus EM’s $455bn... Posted Mar 26 2008, 09:07 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: China, Economic growth, Oil markets, Financial Events, oil prices, OPEC, PetroChina, ExxonMobil

• Benzene prices hit a ceiling

  Benzene prices may be about to tell us something quite important about future profitability trends for the chemical industry. As the chart shows, benzene has hit a price ceiling at around $1200/t over the past 4 years in European markets. Yet crude has... Posted Mar 19 2008, 09:59 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, oil prices, recession, benzene

• Traders sell $, buy oil

  ‘ 'A vicious circle now seems to be in place again, where a lower dollar inspires raw material prices to rally, which in turn increases worries about inflation’. This was how strategists at BNP Paribas summed up the US Fed Chairman’s two days of testimony... Posted Mar 02 2008, 02:39 PM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, Financial Events, inflation, oil prices, Leverage, US Federal Reserve, Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke

• BASF – the oil and gas company

  BASF Chairman Jürgen Hambrecht sounded confident last week, following their annual results . 2007 sales were €58bn (up 10% on 2006), and income from operations was €7.3bn (up 8%). However, Q4 saw sales up just 1.6% at €14.7bn, and income actually down... Posted Feb 24 2008, 05:01 PM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: BASF, Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, Financial Events, credit crunch, M & A, oil prices, Leverage, Gazprom, petchem margins