Sales of chemical products at the wholesale level in the U.S. rose 1.2% to $10.3 billion in December 2012 according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau that was discussed in the latest Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com).
The December increase follows a 0.4% increase in November. Alongside wholesale sales, inventories also rose in December by 3.8% to $12.4 billion. This follows a decline in inventories in November. The inventory-to-sales ratio for chemicals rose to 1.20, from 1.17. Sales were up 6.5% compared to last year, while inventories are ahead by 5.9%
In other economic data included in the weekly ACC report, the JPMorgan Global Manufacturing purchasing manager’s index (PMI) improved by 1.5 percentage points to 51.5. According to the ACC report, this reading is “the highest level in 10 months” and signals that “the contraction in global manufacturing ended in December.”