Europe June chemicals output fell 12.4% year on year - Cefic

03 September 2009 12:53  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Europe’s chemicals output fell by 12.4% year on year in June, with polymers and basic chemicals taking the biggest hit, industry body Cefic said on Thursday.

“All chemicals sectors (except pharmaceuticals) registered an output decline ranging from 8.1% to 18.1%,” Cefic added in its August Chemical Trends Report.

Prices for chemical products, excluding pharmaceuticals, fell 2.7% for the first half of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008.

The chemicals confidence indicator increased in August by seven percentage points compared with July 2009 – this was the fifth improvement since March 2009 but the indicator nevertheless remained at a very low level.

“Given the current levels, it also suggests that annual production growth will remain clearly subdued in August,” the report said.

However, the EU Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) continued to improve and was up 5.9 percentage points. This was the fifth consecutive rise since the trough in March.

“The rise in the indicator was primarily the result of the clearly more favourable expectations for the coming six months. But also [that] the appraisals of the current economic situation have improved slightly for the first time since the third quarter of 2007,” the report added.

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By: Lucy Craymer
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