The American Chemistry Council’s (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) shows that the fourth quarter started on a soft note, with the index for October showing no gain or loss on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. This follows a slight decline in September and six months of relatively stable activity after fairly good gains last year. During October, chemical production increased in North America, Europe and Africa & the Middle East, but fell in the Asia-Pacific region The Global CPRI was up 0.8 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) on a 3MMA basis and stood at 108.0 percent of its average 2012 levels in September.
During October, capacity utilization in the global business of chemistry declined 0.1 percentage points to 78.4 percent. This is off from 80.5 percent last October and is below the long-term (1987-2015) average of 89.1 percent.
Results were mixed on a product basis during October, with gains in consumer products, inorganic chemicals, plastic resins, coatings, and other specialties. Considering year-over-year comparisons, growth was strongest in pharmaceuticals followed by plastic resins, coatings, and other specialty chemicals.
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.