Moody’s sees moderately negative EMEA outlook

14 February 2008 11:09  [Source: ICIS news]

MUMBAI (ICIS news)--Moody's Investors Service sees a "moderately negative" outlook for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) chemical producers for 2008 on company-specific considerations and an expected easing of growth from 2007, it said on Thursday.

The international rating agency added that the companies’ operating performance would remain sensitive to long-term risks including high raw material and energy costs, strong European currencies, competitive pressure from international and emerging market producers and shortening product life cycles.   

"Overall, we expect a greater degree of differentiation in performance, with specialty chemical producers likely to experience margin pressures in 2008 and to be most affected by the anticipated lower demand from manufacturers," said Moody's analyst Elena Nadtotchi.

European operations could see a moderate reduction in growth rates while in the US, companies that were immediately exposed to underperforming end markets such as homebuilding and automotive manufacturers could see growth dip, it said.

Moody's expected operations in Asia and other emerging markets to continue enjoying a relatively good growth rate in 2008.

By: Aaron Rodrigues
+65 6780 4359

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