Latin America

Smartphone sales highlight new trends in consumer markets

Smartphone markets continue to provide early warning of the major changes taking place in consumer markets. And Q4 data confirms the old rules are becoming less and less relevant:  As the chart shows, market positioning is now all-important. Apple are stretching their lead in the ‘sweet spot’ of the value chain – design – and

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US PE exports up just 11% versus 2011, as focus shifts to Latin America

H1 trade date from leading provider Global Trade Information Services highlights a surprisingly weak overall export performance by US polyethylene (PE) producers.  As the chart shows:…

Net export volumes (blue column) have recovered from the 2012 slowdown (green), but are