Sales of chemicals at the wholesale level increased by 7.8% in October, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau that was discussed in the latest installment of the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) Weekly Chemistry and Economic Trends report.
The 7.8% increase eclipsed the 3.8% decline observed in August, and wholesale inventories of chemical products slipped by 0.6%. “The inventories-to-sales ratio fell sharply from 1.27 in August to 1.17 in September,” the ACC report said. Compared to last year, wholesale chemical sales were up 20%, while inventories grew by 16.9% year-over-year, the report adds.
The relatively small amount of economic data out this week continues to be mixed, ACC said, and recent developments in Italy and Greece suggest that the debt crisis in Europe is reaching a critical period. “It appears all but certain that the Eurozone will slip into recession again,” the ACC analysis remarks. Import prices, which tend to be particularly sensitive to global economic conditions, have been weak, ACC explains, indicating that the “state of the global industry is troubled.”
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