Economic storms are brewing and industrial mineral producers should prepare to hunt harder for business in the next few months.
The debt crisis in Europe is still not fixed, the US economy is still shaky, and even Asian demand for raw materials could start declining, bring dark clouds with few silver linings.
How bad is it out there? The world is reacting terribly to the ongoing financial problems, with manufacturing shrinking for the first time in 27 months, according to the Global Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which dropped to 49.9 in September.
Manufacturing PMI – a leading indicator of the manufacturing sector – needs to be above 50 to show sector growth.
“The PMI output index has stagnated in recent months as the trend in new orders has switched into...