Home Blogs Chemicals and the Economy

Chemicals and the Economy

Coatings companies focus on carbon footprint issues

The blog has been in the USA this week, speaking at the bi-annual Global Coatings Summit. Coatings sales are worth $75bn globally, and are a key market for chemicals. Interestingly, much of the discussion centred around sustainability. In spite of the downturn, it is clear that consumers are now very focused on carbon footprint as […]

Washington and Bahrain dates for the blog

The blog is delighted to have been invited to address two important industry events in coming months: Washington DC. It will be presenting a Global Outlook to the Coatings Summit, alongside CEOs including Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical; Christopher Connor of Sherwin Williams; Hans Wijers, AkzoNobel; Kenji Sakai of Nippon Paint, as well as senior […]

CEOs remain cautious over 2010 Outlook

The blog’s quarterly survey of company Outlook statements shows CEOs remain very cautious. There has been a rebound after the destocking disaster of Q4 2008 – Q1 2009. But there seems little confidence that we will quickly return to the levels of demand and margin seen in the 2003-7 Boom period. China’s stimulus and loan […]

Companies remain cautious on the outlook

The good news is that the stabilisation seen in Q2 has been maintained. But companies remain cautious on the outlook, to judge from Q3 reports. CEOs are sceptical about the impact of government stimulus efforts in the West, and fear demand will fall back as these end. The only optimists are in China and India. […]

No sign of any upturn

This week’s company results have been keenly awaited, as the industry seeks to form a view on what happens next to demand and profits. My new IeC colleague Paul Satchell reviews them, from the point of view of a highly-experienced financial analyst, in his ‘Chemicals Viewpoint’. But the blog thought it would also be interesting […]

Jump to page: