Sales of chemical products at the wholesale level rose 0.4% in February to $8.67 billion, following a 2.6% gain in January, according to the Weekly Chemistry and Economic Trends report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC).
Compared to the same time last year, wholesale sales of chemical products were up 16.3%. Paralleling wholesale chemical sales, chemical inventories also rose, by 2.9% to $8.84 billion, according to ACC. As a result, the inventories-to-sales ratio rose from 0.99 in January to 1.02 in February.
The gain in wholesale chemical products is part of a broader and greater-than-expected increase in the overall U.S. wholesale trade. Total U.S. wholesale trade rose by 0.8% to $338.7 billion in February, and is up 9.8% over the same time a year ago. Petroleum products were among those experiencing the largest gains in the wholesale trade. Other leaders included the automotive sector, electrical equipment and machinery.
The ACC report also cites data from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that indicate the economic activity increase seen in the G7 countries during the 4th quarter of 2009 is likely to slow in the first part of the 2010. GDP is likely to grow faster in the U.S. than in Japan, Germany, Italy and France, but will remain fragile as inventory destocking by business and the withdrawal of stimulus measures weighs on activity, says the ACC report.
The ACC market capitalization of U.S. basic and specialty chemical companies rose by 0.2% over last week to close at $559.7 billion on Thursday, while the S&P 500 index was up 0.7% for the same time period.