Worldwide chemical industry production was up 0.5% in March, according to the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Arlington, Va.; www.americanchemistry.com). The gain is the 12th rise in the past 13 months, suggesting that the V-shaped recovery observed in other economic data "has engaged" at the global level, ACC says in the April 30 Weekly Chemistry and Economic Trends report. On a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis, global chemical production is up 10.8% over the same time a year ago.
Global production gains were "fairly broad-based," with the exception of North America, ACC states. North American production has generally followed an upward trend since a low point in December 2008, but activity in the U.S. was soft in March mostly due to weakness in the pharmaceutical industry. Aside from pharmaceuticals, production rose in other chemical sectors, ACC says. Production gains were noteworthy in basic chemicals in North America, particularly bulk petrochemicals, organic intermediates, synthetic rubber and artificial fibers.
In Latin America, chemical output rose for the 12th time in the past 13 months, and was up 14.3% compared to the same time last year. Modest production gains in Western Europe were eclipsed by stronger gains in Central and Eastern Europe, ACC data indicate.
Other data analyzed by ACC in this week’s report dealt with gross domestic product (GDP) in the U.S. The ACC cites Bureau of Economic Analysis data that U.S. GDP increased at a rate of 3.2% in the first quarter of 2010. According to a survey of economic forecasters assembled by ACC, U.S. GDP is expected to grow 3.1% in 2010 and 3.0% in 2011.
The ACC’s market capitalization of U.S. basic and specialty chemical companies rose by 0.4% over its value last week to $559.2 billion. The S&P 500 index slipped 0.2% for the week ending April 29.