The Brexit vote, and Donald Trump’s election, confirm that we are in a New Normal world. In the interview below with Will Beacham, Deputy editor of ICIS Chemical Business, I highlight some ideas about how industry needs to adapt. BARCELONA (ICIS)–The global chemical sector needs to stimulate demand for innovative products and services in mature […]
Chemicals and the Economy
China’s G20 shutdowns will impact global economy
Imagine your government decided to shutdown most of the industry in two major cities for 2 weeks or more? Say Detroit and Chicago in the US, or Milan and Turin in Italy, or Leeds and Manchester in the UK. Now you will have some idea of the scale of the shutdowns being mandated in China […]
US home-ownership returns to 1960’s levels
US home ownership is back at levels seen briefly in the mid-1980s, and before that in the mid-1960s. One key issue today is that while the US population is still growing, the younger population has quite a different profile from the Boomer generation, as the Pew Institute have reported. In 1980, only 1 in 10 young Boomers were […]
Saudi plans to transform Aramco to energy /industrial company
“Within 20 years, we will be an economy that doesn’t depend mainly on oil“. With that one statement, deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured above), changed the outlook for oil and energy markets. The world’s major oil producer, with the lowest cost, was signalling that the kingdom will no longer be supply-driven, focused on […]
Auto sales slump in Japan, Brazil and Russia as China slows
China’s slowdown is continuing to reverberate around the world. One way of measuring this is to look at auto sales in countries closely linked to China’s market such as Japan, Russia and Brazil. As the chart shows, they did well during China’s stimulus period, but they are struggling now. By comparison, more self-sufficient India has […]
Expect $25 – $30/bbl oil and lower chemical prices in 2016
More than $2.3tn was wiped off the value of global stocks last week as China’s slowing economy and currency depreciations spooked investors around the world, leading to the worst start to a year for markets in at least two decades. This is the Great Unwinding of policymaker stimulus in action. Worse is likely to come. […]
Q3 results suggest need for new strategies, business models
Global chemical production growth continues to slow from the peak of 3.7% seen in April 2014. September’s reading from the American Chemistry Council was down to 3%, with most major regions showing a decline: Asia has halved from 6.4% to 3.2%; ME/Africa has fallen from 6.1% to 3.5%; Latin America is negative at -3.2% W […]
China’s car market: triple shock ahead
Auto manufacturers, their suppliers and investors need to prepare themselves for a triple shock from China’s slowing economy, as I describe in my latest post for the Financial Times, published on the BeyondBrics blog The first shock is already under way. As the chart shows, China’s slowdown has caused passenger car volumes to decline in the Bric economies – […]
The “China Chill” slows global economy and petrochemicals
There were record numbers at last week’s European Petrochemical Association annual meeting in Berlin. But most of the 2900 attendees were in subdued mood. Once again, it seems, the industry has chosen to sanction vast new investment at the top of the cycle, and will now suffer the consequences as it all comes online at […]
China focuses on mobile internet for domestic growth
China’s President Xi went to Seattle at the start of his recent US visit, to meet the leading US internet companies. It was the clearest possible signal of his priorities for the future of China’s economy under his New Normal policies. He spent half a day on the Microsoft campus, and had a private dinner […]
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