We are living in an ever more uncertain world, where “business as usual” is becoming the least likely option for the future. Companies and investors need to adapt quickly to this new normal environment, if they want to maintain revenue and profit growth. One example comes from the American company 3M, which has become legendary […]
Chemicals and the Economy
2017 Global outlook – ACS webinar on Thursday
My 6-monthly webinar for the American Chemical Society is on Thursday at 2pm EDT – please click here to register for this free event. It will focus on two key topics: How does a market adapt in the face of declining growth? Many different sectors across the chemical industry are in a state of […]
The blog’s 10th birthday
My first blog post was written exactly 10 years ago this week, on 22 June 2007, from Bangkok in Thailand. Titled The 10th anniversary of the Asian financial Crisis, it covered the early days of the sub-prime financial crisis and noted the changes that had taken place in Asia since 1997. Who knew that the blog […]
Oil price weakness will unmask reflation and recovery myth
Oil markets have been at the centre of the recent myth that economic recovery was finally underway. The theory was that rising inflation, caused by rising oil prices, meant consumer demand was increasing. In turn, this meant that the central banks had finally achieved their aim of restoring economic growth via their zero interest rate […]
Metastable markets at risk from impact of US, UK political stalemate
We are living in very uncertain times, where the only certainty is that there is no “business as usual” option for the future. One sign of this is that the extraordinary has become ordinary : □ The FBI appear convinced Russia’s government targeted last year’s US elections: US President Trump and his former FBI head […]
China’s changed priorities signal end to stimulus
China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ project and the need to reduce pollution have replaced “growth at any price” as key government priorities, as I describe in my latest post for the Financial Times, published on the BeyondBrics blog Companies and investors are assuming it is “business as usual” in China ahead of the important 19th […]
Chemical industry downturn challenges stock market optimism
Stock markets used to be a reliable indicator for the global economy, and for national economies. But that was before the central banks started targeting them as part of their stimulus programmes. They have increased debt levels by around $30tn since the start of the Crisis in 2008, and much of this money has gone […]
Sinopec’s results confirm China’s focus on employment and self-sufficiency, not profit
China’s strategies for oil, refining and petrochemical production are very different from those in the West, as analysis of Sinopec’s Annual and 20-F Reports confirms. As the above chart shows, it doesn’t aim to maximise profit: □ Since 1998, it has spent $45bn on capex in the refining sector, and $38bn in the chemicals sector □ […]