April 2023
Featured in this insight: Chemicals
Industry confidence picks up slightly in the chemical sector: The latest data from the Cefic Chemical Trends Report has revealed that industry confidence across the chemical sector has picked up slightly for the second time since February. This has been driven by a 'strong uplift in the production expectations of managers', according to the latest findings.
However, this was partly offset by a further slight deterioration in managers’ assessments of the current level of overall order books and piling up of stocks of finished chemical products.
The Chemicals Trends summary report looks at the chemical industry performance across 27 countries in the European Union and is based on data released by Eurostat, in areas such as economic climate, business climate, output, producer prices, total sales, employment as well as imports and exports.
The latest report published in March 2023 found that in December 2022 the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) rose for the second time in both the EU27 and the euro area, while stocks of finished chemical products increased throughout the first 10 months of 2022 with stock levels now close to the record levels recorded during the global pandemic.
Looking at chemical production, the report shows that over the first 11 months of 2022, chemical output fell, with the level of production 5.1% below the levels of the previous year across the same time period (2021). The research notes that in 2022 there has been a decoupling between chemical production and the other manufacturing sectors, which is primarily as a result of high energy costs, which continue to impact the chemical sector.
The report highlighted that EU27 manufacturing production growth was driven by four sectors between January – November 2022. Machinery and Equipment grew by 4.9% (compared to the same period in 2021), while automotive grew by 4.4% and electrical equipment grew by 4%. However, pharmaceuticals saw the greatest growth recording outputs that were 13.6% higher than 2021 levels.
On the whole in 2022, the EU27 manufacturing output grew by 2.3%.
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