Category Archives: Clarksons

In recent years mainstream Chinese economic rhetoric has focused on the nations slowing GDP growth rate and the government’s apparent short term policy focus, yet little light has been shed on the longer term picture. Media attention on the underlying … Continue reading →

The Panama Canal has entered into a new chapter in recent days with the opening of its long awaited third set of locks. The expansion project to achieve this almighty milestone has taken almost ten years and will allow significantly … Continue reading →

The automotive industry and more specifically “new passenger vehicle sales” statistics serve good indicator when assessing the health, strength and stability of global economic growth. New car sales are clearly correlated with global macroeconomic conditions, as they provide unquestionable evidence … Continue reading →

The world weather systems are currently in the grip of El Nino, a naturally recurring phenomenon which is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific. Essentially this induces a change … Continue reading →

In recent weeks we have seen the Brent crude oil price recover from its record January lows when prices of the global benchmark dipped to as low as $27 per barrel, a massive 70% fall in price since June 2014. … Continue reading →

It’s no secret that the European and Asian naphtha cracker operators suffered in the days that oil exceeded $100 a barrel, as they found themselves at a significant disadvantage to those running natural gas based ethane crackers. Back in those … Continue reading →

Over the past 30 years, the Middle East has become a key producer and major exporter of petrochemicals to world markets. A fact that has not been lost by its key beneficiaries, namely the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) comprised of … Continue reading →

The rise of the US Dollar in the last twelve months has been something of anomaly. When pitted against an uncertain global economic backdrop such as economic turmoil in the Eurozone over Greece, amongst others, along with Japan struggling and … Continue reading →

Over the last few months concerns over economic growth were thrown around with much abandon but it was not until two weeks ago when the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) devalued the Yuan that such concerns reached fever pitch. Subsequently … Continue reading →

The western world was greeted yesterday morning by various news alerts that a historic agreement had finally been reached between the P5+1 (US, UK, France, Russia, China & Germany) and Iran over the latter’s nuclear programme. This agreement comes after … Continue reading →