- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
Those of you with a good memory will recall the havoc of the Asian Crisis of 1997-1998. Over-borrowed Asian countries were forced to devalue their currencies compared to the dollar, following a bubble originating in property development and inflated asset prices, stoked by relatively cheap dollar-denominated borrowing. Over-capacity in many industries, built on the back of over-enthusiastic production expansion in the expectation of spectacular future growth, combined with a collapse in demand to calamitously unbalance markets: Building materials were especially badly-hit, with some materials taking a decade or more to grow back to a situation of supply-demand balance. Only towards the end of the 2000s were some Asian markets seriously thinking about new production facilities - after their break-neck expansion of the 1990s.
- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Cement Magazine
The past few months have been notable for the high number of cement plant projects announced. Aside from the Dangote developments in Africa, (which don't seem to be able to go a week without announcing some 'milestone' or another,) a growing number have been in 'new' markets.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
Above: World GDP/capita versus percentage of the 'Saturation level' (point at which consumption per capita does not increase with income levels). Cement points estimated by Global Cement. Graph courtesy Rio Tinto.
I recently saw a news item that suggested that we will all be able to live until we are 150 years old (but most likely this will only apply to rich people, as usual). I shuddered. Imagine - living to 75 and then living another 75 years as a very old person. Imagine living 75 years as a very old poor person - since low industrial growth rates around the world will almost certainly translate into lower returns on pensions. In the future you will have to have an enormous pension pot to live off it alone - most people will also have to work, albeit part-time - deep into what is now considered their retirement ages. Perhaps it would be best to go out with a bang at an earlier age, as soon as the money runs out. As has been noted before, 'There are no pleasures in life worth denying yourself for an extra two years in an old-folks home in Weston-super-Mare [a older seaside town in the west of England].'
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
I have just returned from a short trip to Bergen in Norway, to visit an old university friend who now works over there. The region around Bergen, including Øygarden, the Jotenheimen Mountains and Balestrand (the architecture of which was 'borrowed' by Disney for the film 'Frozen') was awe-inspiringly beautiful, but the prices were eye-blisteringly high - just to look at a restaurant menu might leave scorch marks on your retina.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial director, Global Cement Magazine
I think that it all began with those cutesy ads for the Apple iPod - the ones with a funky-looking youth in silhouette, wearing a very obvious pair of white 'ear-bud' ear-phones. They glorified personal choice, while at the same time closing the user off from interaction with other people. Listening to music while walking or running somehow eradicates part of the humanity of the wearer - they become 'apart.' I know - I've said 'Keep going' or 'well done' to any number of competitors in running races and been completely ignored because they were in their own little world. Not least of the anti-social effects of the iPod and its ilk is the pernicious tinny noise that they leak into the ears of other people (and the insidious devaluation of the pleasures of the noises of the real world - for example the wonder of bird song - and of the ultimate non-noise: silence).
