Hi Mickem, here is a screen shot of the origins of worldwide 'phoslock' searches over the past 30 days:
The Netherlands doesn't seem to rate, which doesn't mean there are no searches but the number of searches for the term originating from this country must be well below the countries shown above.
Australia always shows up as no. 1 on Google Trends, which is probably related to the fact that the company is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Many of the related queries that appear are on the sharemarket or of other ASX listed stocks ('YPB Group' and 'Carnarvon Petroleum') so presumably a number of PET shareholders also own these stocks. Alternatively, maybe these are all stocks that the 'momentum' trader crowd like to keep tabs on.
It remains to be seen if the jump in 'phoslock' searches from Canada continues into the next few weeks. If it does this would undoubtedly be a good sign, so something to keep an eye on.
It is interesting to note that Canada tops the worldwide list for 'blue green algae' Google Searches over the past 12 months, which is why I think that recent jump in Canadian 'phoslock' searches might offer some promise.
There also seems to have been a spike in searches from Australia over recent weeks, so maybe an indication that we might also be about be in for some severe blue-green algae problems over the summer.
Note that different countries seem to use a range of different terms to describe the same thing: The term 'blue green algae' doesn't seem to be widely used in the United States or New Zealand, for example. 'Algal Blooms' seems to be more commonly used in the US than 'blue green algae'.
One other thing worth noting in the image above showing the point of origin of the 'blue green algae' searches is those two poor countries, Nepal and Nigeria, that rank as no. 4 and 5.
This seems to be common: every time you do a Google Trends search on blue-green algae or cyanobacteria, there are always a large number of searches from African or South Asian countries.
I don't think the PET management are particularly enthusiastic about these countries: in the AGM, I recall there was a comment that they were not interested in working in India, citing corruption as a concern.
That said, it is curious that one organisation that researches corruption around the world does not rank India as much more corrupt than other countries the company is involved in.
In 2017, India's score was 40, only slightly less than China (41) but above Brazil (37).
China and Brazil have proved to be lucrative for this company, but the level of corruption in these countries is about the same as that of India, and indeed, India ranks noticeably better than Brazil.
What is perhaps even more surprising, is that according to this index there are a swathe of Sub-Saharan African countries that are are ranked as less corrupt than Brazil and China.
This includes Lesotho and Burkino Faso, both which scored 42; South Africa (43); Senegal (45); Namibia (51); Rwanda (55); and Botswana (61). Those last three African countries have relatively low levels of corruption, according to the index.
So apparently, a significant number of African countries are less corrupt than Brazil and China, both which have proved to be profitable for this country.
This would seem to challenge the perception that Africa is a no-go zone for this company, and thus perhaps the management need to take a closer look at this region.
(20min delay)
