The above chart is very welcome news at the start of 2011.
It updates the blog’s posting in July, which highlighted the dramatic increase in mentions of force majeures in ICIS news during H1. This linked to increasing concerns about availability issues amongst consumers. The fear was that maintenance spend on plant and equipment might have proved a soft target for cutbacks, during the difficult times seen in 2009.
The blog expressed the hope that “H1’s better earnings will now encourage companies to reinstate any spending deferrals that have been made“. And so it is delighted to see that H2 saw a stabilisation in the number of mentions.
In February, mentions had been 675% higher than in February 2009, and June was still nearly 400% higher. But H2 saw a major improvement: its total of 197 mentions matched the 202 mentions of H2 2007, when business was still booming.
This is an excellent result, and all those involved deserve congratulations.