BYD, which overtook Tesla as the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles last year says it is expanding aggressively overseas.   “We survive and are successful without the US market today,” BYD executive vice president Stella Li told the UK BBC at the Beijing Auto Show.   Instead of aiming for US customers, the company […]

The White House has said it will work more closely with US artificial intelligence (AI) firms to combat “industrial-scale campaigns” by foreign actors to steal advances in the technology.   Michael Kratsios, Director of Science and Technology Policy, wrote in an internal memo that the administration had new information indicating “foreign entities, principally based in […]

The Bank of England expects stock markets around the world to fall as share prices do not reflect the many risks facing the global economy, according to its deputy governor.   Sarah Breeden said, “There’s a lot of risk out there and yet asset prices are at all-time highs. We expect there will be an […]

European polymer prices continued to rise over the week to 17th April. There were increases of between 25 and 350 EUR per tonne reported in the prices of HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PET, Polypropylene, PVC, ABS and Polystyrene.   Asian polymers fell with reductions of between 15 and 100 USD per tonne reported in the prices […]

Polymer manufacturer, LyondellBasell produced and sold 206,000 tonnes of recycled and renewable-based polymers in 2025, slightly higher than the 203,000 tonnes the company reported for 2024.   LyondellBasell aims to produce 800,000 tonnes per year of recycled and renewable-based polymers by 2030. This target was revised down in February 2026 from a previous goal of 2 […]

China’s economy grew faster than expected in the first three months of the year, even as countries around the world feel the impact of the US-Israel war with Iran.   Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 5% in the period, compared to a year earlier, according to official data. Economists had expected the figure to […]

The global economy is at risk of recession if the US-Israel war with Iran continues and high energy prices persist, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned.   In its World Economic Outlook report, the IMF said in a worst-case scenario, where oil, gas and food prices spike and remain high this year and next, […]

European polymer prices continued to rise over the week to 10th April. There were increases of between 25 and 400 EUR per tonne reported in the prices of HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, Polypropylene, PVC, ABS and Polystyrene.   Asian polymers were mixed with increases of 20 USD per tonne reported in the prices of PET and […]

Inflation in the US accelerated last month to its highest rate in nearly two years, as surging oil prices triggered by the US-Israel war in Iran started to spill over into the wider economy.   Consumer prices climbed 3.3% over the 12 months to March, picking up from 2.4% in February, the Labor Department said. […]

China has once again ‌limited its price increases for petrol and diesel to around half the typical increase under its pricing mechanism, in a bid to mitigate rising oil prices from the Iran war and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.   Oil prices continued to rise ​after Iran rejected a ceasefire proposal […]