France’s chemicals sales fall 15% in 2020 on hit to specialty chemicals

LONDON (ICIS)–France’s chemicals sales fell 15% in 2020, year on year, due in part to the country’s cosmetics sector taking a hit from pandemic-induced restrictions to mobility, the country’s trade group France Chimie said this week.

French chemicals producers – including pharmaceuticals – sold in 2020 goods worth €68.4bn.

The fall of 15% in sales was much larger than the 8% decrease in production during the year, reflecting lower selling prices for many chemicals.

France’s GDP fell 8.2% in 2020, year on year.

Despite the fall in sales and volumes, employment in the industry rose 0.8% to 220,000 workers under the national collective bargaining agreement.

France’s chemicals continues to have its domestic market as its main consumer, unlike Germany’s export-intensive chemicals industry.

Of the total €68.4bn sold in goods in 2020, €58.8bn were sold in France.

“Some [chemicals subsectors] were directly impacted by the shutdowns of the construction sector, the closure of cosmetics distribution networks, and the slowdown in automotive, retail, or aeronautics during the first confinement [started in March 2020],” said France Chimie.

France’s chemicals industry remains as the second largest in Europe, behind Germany’s which in 2020 sold goods worth €186.4bn.

Spain’s chemicals industry has been catching up in the past decade, with its chemicals sector a key provider to sectors with strong base in Spain like construction or automotive.

Spanish trade group FEIQUE has yet to publish 2020 sales and production figures, but the latest available data showed chemicals sales at €62bn in 2019; the 2020 total is likely to be sharply lower as Spain’s GDP fell by 10.8% in 2020.

LOCKDOWNS BITE
France’s chemicals industry all-important cosmetics sub-sector greatly suffered the country’s several lockdowns during 2020 to contain the pandemic.

France Chimie cited figures from the national statistical office Insee showing volumes for cosmetics and derivatives had fallen by 15.8% in 2020; specialty chemicals, closely related to that sector, produced 3.4% lower volumes than in 2019.

Organic chemicals and basic chemicals outputs fell by 6.6% and 9.1%, respectively, in 2020, year on year.

France’s pharmaceuticals barely grew in 2020, despite increased demand due to the health emergency, with output up 0.1%; in 2019, output in the pharmaceutical industry had risen by 11%.

France Chimie said, however, that things should start to look brighter from now on as the vaccine EU campaign accelerates, and with it the French economy.

“Chemicals activity in France is expected to rebound sharply in 2021, even if the start of the year was marked by cyclical tensions. Coming out of a period of weak demand that led to reduced inventories, production faces a stronger-than-expected recovery in world markets,” it said.

“The exceptional accumulation of major forces (cold snap in Texas, technical incidents), the programming of major maintenance shutdowns initially planned for 2020, and the difficulties in sea freight have aggravated the tensions in terms of volumes and prices, which should normalise in the summer.”

Front page picture: Bottles of old chemicals in exhibition at the Saint Jacques Tower, in Paris
Source: Francois Mori/AP/Shutterstock