Data collected and tabulated by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) show that the global chemical industry continued on a good note as the second quarter progressed. ACC’s Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) shows that global chemicals production rose 0.9 percent in May and follows a 0.4 percent gain in April and drops in the first quarter.
Note that all data are measured on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. During May, production gains were again across the board among regions. The Global CPRI was up 1.8 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) on a 3MMA basis and stood at 115.6 percent of its average 2012 levels in May.
During May, capacity utilization in the global chemical industry gained 0.4 percentage points to 84.9 percent, ACC said. This is down from 85.6 percent last May and below the long-term (1987-2017) average of 86.4 percent.
ACC’s Global CPRI measures the production volume of the chemical industry for 33 key nations, sub-regions, and regions, all aggregated to the world total. The index is comparable to the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) production indices and features a similar base year where 2012=100. This index is developed from government industrial production indices for chemicals from over 65 nations accounting for about 98 percent of the total global chemical industry. This data are the only timely source of market trends for the global chemical industry and are comparable to the U.S. CPRI data, a timely source of U.S. regional chemical production.