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Chemicals and the Economy

“Rising oil prices threaten economic recovery”, IEA

The blog has gained important support for its view that oil prices are too high. and threaten the current economic recovery. In an interview with the Financial Times, the chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, has spelled out its view that “oil prices are entering a dangerous zone for the global […]

New White Paper now available

We face more uncertainty today than I have ever seen over the past 30 years. Will last year’s strong performance in terms of profit continue? Or will higher oil prices ruin the party? Might China’s demand slow, as the government there worries about rising inflation? How will European demand be impacted as governments switch from […]

Force majeures reduce to 2007 level

The above chart is very welcome news at the start of 2011. It updates the blog’s posting in July, which highlighted the dramatic increase in mentions of force majeures in ICIS news during H1. This linked to increasing concerns about availability issues amongst consumers. The fear was that maintenance spend on plant and equipment might […]

China’s gasoline at record highs, EU’s close to peak

Crude oil prices have been rocketing lately. In turn, they have produced the seemingly ‘strong’ year-end for the chemical industry forecast by the blog in early November. At this point, there is a clear divergence of view. The blog’s bullish friends see this as a sign of a major recovery in demand, and confidently forecast […]

Planning for Uncertainty

The blog’s New Year Outlook has just been published in ICIS Chemical Business. Please click here if you would like to download a copy It suggests that 2010 turned out to be a better year than many in the industry had expected. But even so, global operating rates (OR%), at 86%, remain well below those […]

The blog in 2010

The blog’s readership continues to grow. It is now read in 133 countries and 4362 cities, compared to 121 countries and 1244 cities a year ago. Readers also remain very loyal, with 24% reading it twice a week, and spending an average of 1.5 minutes on each visit. As the map above shows, readership continues […]

US foreclosure period doubles, as house prices fall

The US foreclosure process used to take around 36 weeks, once the homeowner stopped making payments. But as the chart shows, based on information provided by LPS Applied Analytics, this period has doubled since the housing crisis began in 2008. In November, it was taking nearly 72 weeks, or 16 months. Meanwhile, the number of […]

China’s women believe housing essential for marriage

70% of China’s women regard “housing, a stable income and some savings” as vital for any man wanting to get married. And they probably don’t regard architect Dai Haifei’s $300 Beijing ‘egg house’ (pictured) as their ideal. The data comes from the “2010 China Marital Status Report“, which adds that the man’s personality and morals […]

To wait, or not to wait

If the blog offered you a choice between taking $3400 today, or waiting a month to receive $3800, what would you choose? This was the question posed to 5900 economics students from 45 different countries in a novel experiment by the Swiss Finance Institute. And they got significantly different answers. As the chart shows, only […]

Petrobras moves forward on green polymers

The blog was very pleased to talk recently to Business News Americas about developments in Latin America. Please click here if you would like to read the full interview. It highlights the key role being played by Brazil’s Petrobras, particularly in the development of ‘green polymers’. These are still very small in volume, compared to […]

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