10 years ago, Dow was in the middle of completing its $12bn Union Carbide acquisition. This made it the world’s second largest chemical company, and a leading player in Basic petchems and polymers. More recently, however, higher oil prices have made life increasingly difficult for chemical businesses that lack upstream integration. Dow’s response, born of […]
Chemicals and the Economy
Deepwater Horizon to lead to more regulation
The blog gained some key insights into the current M&A landscape this week, at the annual Pilko & Associates Round Table, co-organised with Shell Chemicals and leading law firm Allen & Overy: • M&A has become a ‘buyer’s market’, and this is not expected to change in the near future. • Credit markets remain cautious. […]
A new way of travelling light
As a very frequent traveller, the blog was intrigued by a flight attendant’s tip for packing more clothes, without creases, in a carry-on bag. The above photo from the New York Times shows her system, which involves rolling clothes tightly, with lighter items packed on top. Does it work? The blog will welcome your comments.
India’s motor industry focuses on ‘Nano’ cars
India was the only major country to see auto production growing last year. With the Asian Petchem Industry meeting opening in Mumbai, it seems timely to look at the progress of the Indian motor industry in recent years. As the chart shows (data from the Society of Indian Auto Manufacturers) , the sector has been […]
The Bank of Dad and Mum rules
Paul McCulley of Pimco, the world’s largest bond fund managers, has been continually insightful about the lead-up to the current Crisis and its fall-out. He first alerted the blog to the work of Hyman Minsky, which is the best (and so far only) explanation for the disaster that is continuing to hit the world financial […]
Fannie and Freddie lose another $19bn
Senator Dirksen’s great one-liner in the US Senate, “A $bn here, a $bn there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money” is beginning to seem sadly out of date, as the costs of the financial crisis escalate. Today saw the Eurozone announce a €750bn ($936bn) bail-out fund, including €250bn from the IMF, to support its […]
Markets approach the “drawn-out fundamental downtrend” phase
Sell in May and Go Away” is the oldest rule in stock market investment. This week has certainly provided further support for it: • The major Western stock markets are down c8% • The major emerging markets are down between 4% – 13% • Crude oil prices are down 13% This May panic may well […]
Gasoline stocks at all-time high ahead of US driving season
They say that you learn more from your mistakes than your successes. In the blog’s case, it will never forget the mistake it made when it began to build a long position in early May, soon after arriving in Houston, Texas. It was expecting product to go tight as the US gasoline season began on […]
US auto market remains “very fragile”
US auto sales (black line) in April showed welcome improvement versus 2009, but were still a long way short of earlier demand levels. They were up 19% versus April 2009. But even with this improvement, they were down by 24% by comparison with 2 years ago. On an annualised basis, they were only 11.2m versus […]
The Greek carriage hits the buffers as the ‘slow motion train wreck’ continues
The blog remains amazed, and worried, by the inability of many of those reponsible for the global financial system to provide the necesary leadership during the current Crisis. They seemingly failed to grasp in March 2008 that Bear Stearns’ bankruptcy was a clear sign that a major global financial crisis was around the corner. Equally, […]
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