Data collected and tabulated by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) show that global chemicals production rose 0.1 percent in January. This follows a 0.3 percent gain in December, stable activity in November and a 0.1 percent gain in October. During January, production gained in North America, the former Soviet Union (FSU), Africa and the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, was flat in Latin America and fell in Europe. With softness earlier last year, the Global Chemical Producing Regional Index (Global CPRI) was up only 0.5 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis and stood at 116.2 percent of its average 2012 levels.
During January, capacity utilization in the global chemical industry slipped 0.2 points to 83.1 percent. This is down from 85.6 percent last January and below the long-term (1987-2017) average of 86.5 percent.
Among chemical industry segments, January results were mixed on a product basis, with gains in agricultural chemicals, inorganic chemicals, plastic resins, synthetic rubber, manufactured fibers, coatings, and other specialty chemicals offset by weakness in consumer products and bulk petrochemicals and organics. Considering year-earlier comparisons, growth was strongest in coatings, followed by bulk petrochemicals and organics and plastic resins.
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 set is the only timely source of market trends for the global chemical industry and is comparable to the U.S. CPRI data, a timely source of U.S. regional chemical production.