Helping you navigate the new normal
US ethylene spot prices are tumbling as the major new shale gas expansions come on line, as the chart based on ICIS pricing data confirms: They began the year at $617/t, but have since more than halved to $270/t on Friday They are only around 10% higher than their all-time low of $240/t in September […]
The post US ethylene prices near all-time lows as over-capacity arrives appeared first on Chemicals & The Economy.
Global demand is continuing to slow, yet chemical industry capacity is continuing to ramp up. As a result, supply gluts are likely to appear in many key areas as we move into the second half of the year. That is the key conclusion from the latest American Chemistry Council data for global chemical capacity and […]
The decline in China’s electricity consumption growth highlights the remarkable slowdown underway in its Old Normal economy, as the chart shows: Consumption growth took off in 2009 under the influence of the stimulus programme It rose 6.5% in 2009, and then accelerated further in 2010 when it was up 14.7% 2011 growth stayed at double-digit […]
The red line in the above chart from the Financial Times shows how far Eurozone growth has diverged since 2008 from the previous SuperCycle trend (in blue).
Unfortunately, most companies failed to spot what might happen as a result of …
In early March, the blog described itself as feeling like “a lonely voice, focused on what is really happening in the real world”. But gradually since then, the consensus view on growth and commodities regulation has begun to shift in its direction. For example, a recent New York Times article on China by Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman could have […]
Last April, China’s polyester market provided an early warning signal that the current downturn was about to start. Now, it is flagging an important change in relative positions within the value chain.
9 months ago, the divergence between crude oil …