Spending on the construction of new chemical manufacturing facilities is up 73.5% year-over-year, according to the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). The ACC’s current list of chemical industry projects totals 222 projects, representing cumulative capital investments of $137.3 billion.
A graph in the ACC report shows annual investment for chemical facilities in 2014 topped $80 billion, more than doubling the investment from 2013.
Meanwhile, the S&P Index of chemical companies fell 1.1% in January. The decrease is smaller than the 3.1% loss observed for the wider S&P 500 Index.
The latest ACC report also discussed the JPMorgan Global Manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI), which rose 0.2 points in January to 51.7 (for this type of index, readings above 50 signal expansion, while those below 50 signal contraction). “The JPMorgan PMI indicates steady progress by the global manufacturing sector in January,” the ACC report says.