The African mining sector is at a critical juncture. The extraordinary, unprecedented demand for the continent’s resources is currently balanced by the global landscape of uncertainty and price volatility.
Corrections in petrochemical prices have been long coming, yet the speed and sharpness of the relapse surprised the industry. A reduction in margins had started in 2019, but the pandemic distorted the cycle, putting on hold the construction of world-scale petrochemical plants and playing with consumption behaviors as economies closed and re-started. Today, those capacities in Asia and the US that have been years in the making have come onstream, oversupplying the market.