SupplyChain Magazine February 2015 | Page 10

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Petrochemical plant
EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK , for the past seven years you will have seen so much news about the 2008 recession , you will be forgiven for thinking it is still ongoing .
In fact it ended in quarter three of 2009 for the UK when the negative growth of GDP ( Gross Domestic Product ) ceased . It has almost become extreme hyperbole to mention the words recession , economic downturn or financial crisis in the developed world .
But what happens when the price of a hard commodity like crude oil , just starts to nosedive ? More to the point , why has crude oil prices been falling in the first place ? And is it actually good news or bad news ?
For the first time in six years , a barrel of North Sea and US oil were both below the $ 50 mark . An unprecedented and unlikely situation a short time ago , with much of the Eurozone and indeed US still trying to recover from economic woes . Even
10 February 2015