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Chemicals and the Economy

Facts of the week

The Financial Times reports two interesting facts: • Japan’s leading seismologist warned Tokyo Electric Power in June 2009 that “tsunamis of a completely different scale have come before” in the region of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. One, in 869, had “destroyed a castle“. But no changes were made to the plant’s defences. • The […]

The Potential Impact of the Japan Disaster – an Update

Sadly, the blog needs to update its March 16 post, which analysed the potential impact of the Japan disaster. Earlier hopes of a quick end to the problems have proved false:•250000 people are now in refugee accommodation•The death toll is still rising, and is likely to reach at least 18000•The head of the International Atomic […]

Uncertainty builds around the world

The blog has built great loyalty amongst its readers. 24% visit it twice a week. Recently, as during the 2008 financial Crisis, it has gained many new readers. They also want to better understand developments in the Middle East/N Africa (MENA), Japan, China, and oil markets, and what these might mean for future chemical demand. […]

Electric autos launched in the USA

The blog has been following the development of General Motors’ electric auto, the Volt, since October 2008. Its old friend, Pedro Spohr of Galp in Portugal, had highlighted how a move to electric autos had the potential to change naphtha balances for the chemical industry. So it is delighted to see that the Volt has […]

The super-computers even confuse Bloomberg

The blog has worried for some time about the growing dominance of super-computers in financial markets. Their activities are based on arbitrage between markets, not on fundamental analysis. And their power means that no financial market now knows what it is actually pricing. The headlines above, from today’s Bloomberg Energy page, highlight the issue. Even […]

Dow Corning launches Shared Value initiative

100 million children in developing countries can’t to see the blackboard in school, because of poor eyesight. They need self-adjusting glasses, because of the shortage of optometrists. So the blog was delighted to learn about Dow Corning’s work with the Centre for Vision in the Developing World to overcome this problem. Their new Child ViSion™ […]

Auto companies face Japan supply chain problems

EU auto sales remained weak in February, and dependent on just 4 countries. As the chart shows (red line), they followed January in being at the bottom of historical monthly sales. Overall, January and February were down 0.3% versus 2010, with 2 million autos sold: • German sales were up 16% at 435K; France was […]

China has “60% risk of banking crisis by 2013”

China’s housing market seems to be facing the threat of a major downturn. That is the only conclusion to be drawn from the rising sense of concern being expressed by policymakers and the official media. Last year, China’s Academy of Social Sciences estimated that “there are 64.5 million empty apartments and houses in China’s urban […]

Japan – the Fukushima nuclear problem explained

It is nearly a week since the Japanese earthquake/tsunami which led to the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi complex. Yet information on the actual nature of the problems has been very difficult to obtain. In case readers have experienced the same issue, the blog is reprinting in full the article below from today’s Wall […]

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