Shale-gas-driven investment in the U.S. by chemical companies continues to expand, according to records maintained by the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com). The current list of chemistry industry projects totals 208, up from 188 in July. The cumulative capital investment for these project totals $127.5 billion, with 63% being foreign direct investment. The information was included in the ACC’s latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report.
In other economic news, the report says chemical equity performance slipped slightly during September, the ACC says. The S&P index for chemical companies declined by 0.2%, compared to a 1.6% fall by the wider S&P 500 Index. The S&P chemicals index is up 9.9% from the beginning of the year, while the S&P 500 is up 6.7%.
U.S. production of major plastic resins as of August totaled 6.6 billion pounds during August 2014, which was 0.8% higher than a year ago at the same time. The year-to-date total of 50.6 billion pounds was 1.0% lower than the same period in 2013, the ACC report says.