The American Chemistry Council’s (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) shows that headline global production ended the year on a stronger note, rising 0.4 percent in December after a 0.2 percent gain in November, on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. During December, chemical production increased in Western Europe, Central & Eastern Europe, Africa & the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, but fell in North America. Latin American activity was flat. The Global CPRI was up only 0.7 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) on a 3MMA basis and stood at 108.9 percent of its average 2012 levels in December.
During December, capacity utilization in the global business of chemistry rose 0.1 percentage points to 78.7 percent. This is off from 80.7 percent last December and is below the long-term (1987-2016) average of 88.8 percent.
Results were mixed on a product basis during December, with gains in pharmaceuticals, consumer products, in-organic chemicals, plastic resins, synthetic rubber, and other specialties. Weakness was centered in agricultural chemicals and coatings. Considering year-over-year comparisons, growth was strongest in coatings followed by pharmaceuticals, plastic resins, and synthetic rubber.
ACC’s Global CPRI measures the production volume of the business of chemistry for 33 key nations, sub-regions, and regions, all aggregated to the world total. The index is comparable to the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) production indices and features a similar base year where 2012=100. This index is developed from government industrial production indices for chemicals from over 65 nations accounting for about 98 percent of the total global business of chemistry. This data are the only timely source of market trends for the global chemical industry and are comparable to the US CPRI data, a timely source of U.S. regional chemical production.