Data collected and tabulated by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) shows that growth in global chemical production ended the fourth quarter on a strong upward trend, boosted by a synchronized upswing in the global economy. ACC’s Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) shows that global chemicals production rose 0.5 percent in December, following a 0.6 percent gain in November. During December, production gains were fairly broad-based although the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and the Asia-Pacific region slipped back. The Global CPRI was up 3.7 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) on a 3MMA basis and stood at 116.1 percent of its average 2012 levels in November. Note that all data are on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis.
During December, capacity utilization in the global chemical industry gained 0.2 percentage points to 87.6 percent. This is up from 84.9 percent last December but is below the long-term (1987-2017) average of 86.5 percent.
ACC’s Global CPRI measures the production volume of the chemical industry for 32 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 US CPRI data, a timely source of U.S. regional chemical production.