Europe chem traders more confident on future business conditions – July CMCI

LONDON (ICIS)–European chemical traders’ confidence is weak regarding current business conditions, order book volumes and profitability but positive for these three indicators over the next 12 months, analysis of the ICIS Chemical Market Confidence Index (CMCI) showed on Tuesday.

July saw the first full CMCI conducted since the UK’s vote to leave the EU, with the June data collected the week of the vote, making it impossible to tell the impact until now.

The overall Europe CMCI points to a potential shift to a seller’s market.

UK private sector output fell to its lowest levels since early 2009 in July, while eurozone growth slowed to the lowest levels in 18 months following the UK’s vote in the country’s EU membership referendum, according to purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data for the month. The IMF has also cut growth estimates for the UK and Eurozone as a result of the decision, although the extent of the impact depends on the terms of exit negotiations between Westminster and Brussels.

The newly established ICIS Europe CMCI aggregates sentiment from hundreds of petrochemical market players actively involved in price negotiations across more than 60 different markets.

The Europe CMCI runs from +100, to -100, with zero on each index representing neutral, or uncertain conditions, a negative score indicating bearish expectations and a positive score representing bullish expectations. The indices also gather sentiment on the comparison between the current situation and the situation across the past 12 months to give a complete picture of current market conditions and confidence. The information is gathered in the third week of each month.  A full methodology is available on request.

For more details on the overall Europe CMCI data, click here