One of the new skills being learnt in this current crisis is how to run plants efficiently at low operating rates. “It’s funny that for years now, we’ve worried about how to scale up profitably. Now industry is faced with just the opposite, how to scale down profitably,” says Mark Matzopoulos, chief operating officer at […]
Asian Chemical Connections
It’s tough at the top…….
It’s easy to take pot shots at the boss, and everyone of course feels they have been underpromoted and could do the job better themselves. Andrew Liveris is just the latest in a long line of CEOs to experience both envy – and at the moment perhaps a little pleasure at their failures. The gloating […]
It’s fun to be miserable….
LyondellBasell, Woody Allen, Dow Chemical, PIC, K-Dow, Kuwait, financial meltdown, carbon footprint,
The new frugal and greener consumer
Trendspotting, green conscience, eco-buying, recycling, environmental footprint, cost saving, greed-guilt
Will the US dinosaurs ever learn?
yet-more US dinosaurs, dinosoars, carbon capture and storage, Alberta tar sands, shale sands, renewable energy, wind power, solar power, second-generation biofuels
Heading for extinction
Unbelievable, incredible – what prehistoric planet do these people live on? Please see below for a rant from a-soon-to-be-extinct species of business leader – the US chemicals executive against Barack Obama. I have my doubts about Obama, but at least he has a brain bigger than a shrivelled pea (unlike certain other holders of the […]
Would you pass the Koala Bear test?
carbon footprint, Yanchep National Park, Perth, Western Australia, globalisation
Tainted food hits polymer sales
Cadbury, China civil unrest, financial meltdown, Tainted food
The big challenges
As delegates gather for this year’s European Petrochemical Association meeting in the unreal world of Monaco (unreal for the 99.9 per cent recurring of us who don’t own Ferraris), I thought it was worth summarising some of the issues discussed on this blog over the last few months. We’ve dealt with: *Oil-price volatility and the […]
Changing nature of demand
green homes, the Economist, Peak Oil, speculators, changing demand growth
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