Eurozone chems output up 2.1%in November tracking overall industrial production

Jonathan Lopez

12-Jan-2022

MADRID (ICIS)–Eurozone chemicals output rose 2.1% in November 2021, month on month, the European statistics body Eurostat said on Wednesday.

The reading for chemicals output was in line with the increase of 2.3% in the overall industrial production index in the 19-country currency union, added Eurostat.

Chemicals output rose in all major producing countries within the eurozone, except in the petrochemicals trading hub of the Netherlands.

Data for Italy, the third largest producer in the area after Germany and France, were not available yet.

Chemicals output in the wider 27-country EU rose by 1.9% in November, month on month. Poland, the largest producer outside the eurozone but within the EU, posted chemicals output 5.1% higher than in October.

Chemicals output
(% change)
November October September
Eurozone 2.1 -1.2 0.5
Germany 3.9 -3.6 1.1
France 1.6 0.5 0.8
Italy N/D 0.8 0.2
Spain 2.3 0.5 -1.3
Netherlands -1.5 1.9 1.6
EU 1.9 -0.4 0.5
Poland 5.1 4.8 2.0

Year on year, chemicals output in the eurozone rose by 1.5% in November.

In the EU, it rose by 2.4%, compared with November 2020.

OVERALL INDUSTRY: ‘BLURRED PICTURE’
During November, overall industrial output in the eurozone rose by 2.3% compared with October.

In the EU, it increased by 2.5%.

Analysts at Oxford Economics pointed out that the consensus was for only an increase of 0.5% in the eurozone for November, although any triumphant optimism among industrialists should be contained despite the bumper November reading.

Most of the upward surprise is explained by a significant downward revision of the October’s outturn. A spike in a volatile Irish industrial production further blurred the picture, with France and Germany posting monthly declines,” said Oxford Economics.

Overall industrial output in the largest and second-largest economies within the eurozone, Germany and France, fell by 2.5% and 0.2% in November respectively, month on month, according to Eurostat.

The analysts added that the supply chain woes should recede in the coming months, but the volatility the pandemic could cause yet again this year was a cause for concern.

“The extent of Omicron’s impact on the demand for the [industrial] sector’s output remains uncertain, leaving the risks to our 3.6% [for the eurozone] growth forecast for 2022 skewed to the downside,” the analysts concluded.

Industrial output in the eurozone fell year on year during November, however, by 1.5%. By comparison, it was flat in the wider EU.

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