Despite mixed reports for the wider economy last week, business indicators for basic and specialty chemicals were largely positive, according to data assembled by the American Chemistry Council (ACC).
The most recent ACC Economics and Statistics report points out that railcar loadings of polymers and basic chemicals were strong in February. For the week ending Feb. 27, railcar loadings rose by 2,303 from the previous week to 31,307 railcars. The total is 12.7% greater than the same week last year.
In addition, chemical companies have outperformed the wider stock market thus far in 2010. For example, the market capitalization of U.S. basic and specialty chemical companies rose by 3.6% from the previous week to close at $539.4 billion on March 4. By comparison, the S&P 500 index rose 1.8% over the same period.
The ACC report cited U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data that show consumer spending jumped by 0.5% in January, which surpassed expectations. Such a value is important to the chemical industry because approximately $183 billion in chemistry is directly related to consumer spending, ACC says.
Despite those positives, however, the chemical industry lost jobs overall in February. Employment fell by 3,800 (or 0.5%) to 786,900 in February.
In other areas affecting the chemical industry, light vehicle sales were down in February due partly to severe weather in North America. Global semiconductor sales rose 0.3% to $22.5 billion in January, according to data from the Semiconductor Industry Association, as reported by the ACC in its report. According to data from other industry groups, ACC says paper production and construction spending both fell in January.