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Bank of England warns on inflation

Andrew Sentance of the Bank of England has issued a very clear analysis of current oil and commodity price movements. It rejects the view that these have been caused by speculators. Instead it points to increasing demand, and lack of supply, as the principal causes of today's higher prices. The slide...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 07-17-2008
European refining margins 'at 4 year low'

European refining margins are falling, as the US's need for gasoline imports reduces. Margins have reached a 4 year low of minus $6.21/bbl , according to Bloomberg. And the problem is likely to get worse, as the US moves towards greater self-sufficiency in gasoline via refinery expansions and increased...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 07-08-2008
The 'difficult task of damage control'

The central bankers' bank (the Bank for International Settlements) is not very impressed with its members' efforts over the past year. Readers may remember that its Report last year explicitly warned of the problems that were about to occur in world financial markets. This year's Report expresses...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 07-08-2008
The blog's first birthday

Its now a year since the blog started. Since then, 213 postings have appeared. It is now read in 72 countries and 620 cities (shown above). Most encouragingly, readership continues to steadily increase. Since January, it has risen a further 301%. The blog's aim is to identify 'the influences...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 07-05-2008
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 training exercise in early June. The distance it...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 06-24-2008
Asian stockmarkets fall on stagflation risk

I noted earlier this year that China was now exporting inflation, rather than the deflation of the past decade. Working in Asia again this week, one can see a major change in attitudes is now underway. Rising food and energy prices are having an enormous impact, and Asian governments are clearly nervous...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 06-15-2008
Interesting quotes (5)

Every now and then , a few interesting quotes come along, which seem to recent summarise developments, and set the tone for the next few months. The last few days is a good example of this process at work: 'The era of cheap energy is over, as oil production isn't rising fast enough to meet demand...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 06-09-2008
High inflation, or global downturn?

Central bankers had it easy over the past decade. Now they are going to have to earn their money. Inflation is rising rapidly, and growth rates are falling. But unfortunately, as I first noted back in March , they still seem to have differing ideas about what policies will best counter these twin challenges...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 06-08-2008
Dow raises prices by up to 20%

Dow today announced that it is raising prices for 'all of its products by up to 20 percent - depending on their exposure to rising energy, feedstock and transportation costs - and will review all terms to all customers'. Dow CEO, Andrew Liveris, said that Dow's 'first quarter feedstock...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 05-28-2008
Sinopec receives $1bn subsidy in April

Sinopec is now losing 3000 yuan ($425) on every tonne of oil product sold, due to China's price freeze, according to Sinopec spokesman Chen Ge yesterday . And this is on top of official government subsidies paid to Sinopec, which rocketed to $1bn in April. This was more that the entire subsidy paid...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 05-27-2008

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