Cefic’s June Chemical Trends Report is out!

EU chemical industry is making slow strides forward

The overall chemicals business climate appears to be more stable: Managers’ opinion on order books is slightly up, but still reflects limited demand, and while uncertainty about their future business situation decreased in retail trade and services, it remained stable in industry and construction.

It also seems the EU27 chemical industry has moved beyond its ultimate low in terms of output and capacity utilisation, and is finally showing a positive trend: Output in Q1-2024 was 1.8% higher than in Q4-2023, and there was a small increase of capacity utilisation in the EU27 chemical industry from 74.4% in Q3-2023 to 75.5% in Q1-2024, staying well below the long-term average of 81.4%.

In Q1 2024, the EU27 chemicals trade surplus reached the highest value since Q1 2022 (€14.8 bn). The EU27 chemicals exports to non-EU27 area increased by €5.6 bn from Q4-2023 to Q1-2024. The country analysis shows that USA and UK contributed largely to this positive development.

That said, these encouraging numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, given that their benchmark is 2023: a year where production was still far below pre-covid levels. A strong recovery in 2024 is unlikely when most of the chemical industry’s downstream users – rubber & plastics, textiles, construction, computer production – are still showing downward trends.

By clicking here you can find all the past editions of Cefic’s Chemical Monthly Report.