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Chemicals and the Economy

BASF warn on over-expansion and China

The blog was very interested to see a recent ICIS interview with Torsten Penkuhn, BASF’s petchem head in Asia, by Will Beacham. Penkuhn noted: “We are more and more concerned at BASF about an increasing risk of overbuilding once again. We currently see a risk that people are becoming too ambitious, enthusiastic and optimistic. And […]

China fines Unilever for soap price increases

There seems little doubt that China is increasingly worried by rising inflation. The latest sign is Unilever, the giant consumer products company, being fined $300k (RMB 2 million), for discussing plans to increase prices due to higher raw material costs. Those who can remember the US WIN (Whip Inflation Now) programme, or the UK’s Prices […]

US crackers feast on ethane feeds

There has been a dramatic shift in cracker feedstocks in the USA over the past 2 years, as crude oil prices have risen. Many US producers have been able to switch to ethane feed, and as a result have become some of the lowest-cost ethylene producers in the world. As the chart* shows: • In […]

China PTA market leads Downturn Alert lower

The blog launched its Downturn Alert last week, since when we have seen dramatic moves in oil markets. These may well lead to a slowdown in chemical orders, as buyers now have no need to secure supplies ahead of price increases, and may instead start reducing inventories to more ‘normal’ levels. • Brent (dotted red […]

Oil tumbles $12/bbl as demand worries increase

Cracks have begun to appear in commodity markets as QE2 ends. Crude oil has now fallen $12/bbl on demand worries since the blog suggested a top might be close. And the Wall Street Journal has confirmed that the super-computers who have driven prices skyward, are now beginning to retire from the party. This builds on […]

US auto buyers shift towards the New Normal

US auto sales remained stable last month. As the chart shows (red line), they were just above the 1.1 million level. Until the Crisis began in 2008, this was the minimum level for monthly sales, but now it seems to have become more of a maximum. Beneath the surface, some other significant changes are underway: […]

Crude oil and stock markets begin to diverge

Financial markets have been fired up over the past 2 years via the arrival of high volume computerised trading. This now dominates market action. And until recently, the US Federal Reserve was happy to finance this activity, via its $600bn QE2 programme. The Fed’s aim was to generate inflation, and so avoid the risk of […]

The end of the US housing dream

Most economists still expect a major recovery in US housing markets. This would be very welcome for chemical companies, as housing represented a $35bn market as recently as 2006, when 2.2m new homes were built. But the above chart suggests they may be over-optimistic. It comes from Yale’s Prof Robert Shiller, who co-founded the authoritative […]

Downturn Alert launches in the blog

They don’t ring bells at market turning points. Otherwise, we could all retire to the Bahamas. But there is growing anecdotal evidence, from chemical buyers and the main retailers, that we may have reached at least a temporary market peak. And Brent crude oil has been stable for 4 weeks at $125/bbl. Equally, since 1970, […]

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