Chemical Industry Summary The US political election in November resulted in an outcome that was not predicted by most polls, with Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump winning a majority of the electoral college vote and becoming president elect. This election has widespread ramifications for the US chemical and energy industries, as important…
Chemical Industry Summary The conclusion of OPEC’s annual meeting in Vienna on November 30th has touched off a rally in the global crude oil market that has multiple implications for chemicals and regional competitiveness. WTI crude pricing has moved up about US$4/Bbl. on the speculation that an announced OPEC production cut of 1.2…
Chemical Industry Summary The 6-month anniversary of OPEC’s decision to limit crude oil production will occur at the end of May, and the decision to re-authorize production cut targets is pending. The current news flow prompts many analysts to anticipate that the production cut targets will remain in place in 2017, perhaps extended to 9…
Chemical Industry Summary The financial community’s consensus estimates for US chemical companies indicates that they are expected to reportQ1earnings most reports will be flat with last year. Companies leveraged to the olefins/polyolefins chain are seeing a relatively strong, but lower margins. Improvement is expected from US companies that are leveraged to the chlor-vinyl’s chain…
Chemical Industry Summary After trading in a stable range of US$5/Bbl. for several months, the last week has seen global crude oil prices soften roughly 10% with WTI prices now trading below US$48/Bbl. The current weakness of pricing is related to recent inventory and production data that have cast doubt on the potential for…
Chemical Industry Summary The Q4 earnings reporting season is now more than halfway complete and reported earnings for US companies have either been near expected levels or have demonstrated some upside versus consensus estimates. Many companies are reporting positive earnings momentum and express cautious optimism for 2017 based on macro trends. While there is…
Chemical Industry Summary The Q4 earnings reporting season will be in full bloom by the final week in January. While Q4 results will likely represent a mixed bag of year-on-year financial performance, the consensus is for 2017 to show improvement in key economic drivers and industry prices and volumes. Earnings growth estimates for US…
Chemical Industry Summary The recently completed first quarter financial results reported for US chemical companies indicated year-over-year revenue growth and solid, if not record-setting margins for many commodity chemicals. Earnings were generally flat from last year’s Q1 levels, except for those companies leveraged to the commodities titanium dioxide and methanol, and to a lesser extent…
Chemical Industry Summary The 6-month anniversary of OPEC’s decision to limit crude oil production will occur at the end of May, and the decision to re-authorize production cut targets is pending. The current news flow prompts many analysts to anticipate that the production cut targets will remain in place in 2017, perhaps extended to 9…
Chemical Industry Summary After trading in a stable range of US$5/Bbl. for several months, the last week has seen global crude oil prices soften roughly 10% with WTI prices now trading belowUS$48/Bbl. The current weakness of pricing is related to recent inventory and production data that have cast doubt on the potential for global crude…