This news update on EU chemicals output is brought to you by Business Standard.
For the fourth consecutive month, European chemicals output increased in January 2014, according to the CeficChemicals Trends Report released on April 23, 2014. Output during January 2014 was up 3% per cent year-on-year, but EU chemicals prices were down 2.8% over the same period. Meanwhile industry sales during full-year 2013 were down 3.3% on 2012.
The EU chemicals sector continued to show a strong trade surplus, but growth of the surplus has slowed markedly in recent years, swelling only Euro 1.0 billion to Euro 48.8 billion in 2013. Confidence levels for the sector remained broadly unchanged in March 2014 compared to February 2014. But trends in capacity utilisation and employment were negative. Capacity utilisation eased, to 78.8% in the fourth quarter, from 79.1% in the third quarter, while employment in the EU chemical industry fell 1% during 2013.
Hubert Mandery, Director, Cefic, said, “Growth is recovering only slowly: we have yet to return to the level of output achieved seven years ago, before the crisis. The data highlight the urgent need to bring about the European industrial renaissance proposed by European policymakers.”
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