USA: Market Index
Growth in Global Chemistry Continues Despite Hurricane Harvey
| Editor: Alexander Stark
The American Chemistry Council’s Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) shows that growth in global chemistry during August continued on a solid pace but was weighed down by effects of Hurricane Harvey.
Washington/USA — Global chemicals production rose 0.4 % in August, easing from a 0.5 % gain in July, as measured on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis.
During August, production increased in Western Europe, Africa & the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region but was soft elsewhere. The Global CPRI was up 3.1 % year-over-year (Y/Y) on a 3MMA basis and stood at 111.5 % of its average 2012 levels in August.
During August, capacity utilization in the global business of chemistry rose 0.1 percentage points to 80.7 %. This is up from 80.3 % last August and is below the long-term (1987-2016) average of 88.8 %.
Results were generally positive on a product basis during August, with gains in pharmaceuticals, organic chemicals, plastic resins, manufactured fibers, coatings, and other specialty chemicals. Considering year-over-year comparisons, growth was strongest in coatings followed by pharmaceuticals and organic chemicals.
ACC’s Global CPRI measures the production volume of the business of chemistry for 33 key nations, sub-regions, and regions, all aggregated to the world total. The index is comparable to the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) production indices and features a similar base year where 2012=100.
This index is developed from government industrial production indices for chemicals from over 65 nations accounting for about 98 % of the total global business of chemistry. This data are the only timely source of market trends for the global chemical industry and are comparable to the US CPRI data, a timely source of US regional chemical production.
