European chemical production declined by 0.5% year over year (YOY) in 2018, having risen by 0.2% YOY through September, according to Cefic. The fall in production was caused by the higher price of oil, lower demand for chemicals from the automotive sector, and by unusually low water levels in European rivers, which caused transportation delays, Cefic says.
Cefic says that it is expecting modest growth of 0.5% in 2019, compared with 2018. Although the industry is expected to recover from a decline in demand from the automotive industry in 2018, performance in 2019 might be impacted by trade tensions between the United States, China, and Europe, not to mention uncertainty around Brexit, according to Cefic. Investors and customer industries are becoming more cautious in this volatile environment, Cefic says. Demand from the automotive, agricultural, and construction sectors, the key customers of the chemical industry, is predicted to increase slightly in 2019, according to Cefic.
“We remain cautiously optimistic about the 2019 prospects,” says Marco Mensink, director general, Cefic. “The forecast 1.5% growth of manufacturing industries should be sufficient to keep demand for chemicals at the same or higher level in 2019,” he says.
By Michael Ravenscroft
Source: Chemical Week
The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC), DuPont de Nemours, Inc. (NYSE: DD) and Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA) (the “companies”) today announced they have reached an agreement in principle to comprehensively resolve all PFAS-related drinking water claims of a defined class of public water systems that serve the vast majority of the United States population.
The quest to develop hydrogen as a clean energy source that could curb our dependence on fossil fuels may lead to an unexpected place — coal. A team of Penn State scientists found that coal may represent a potential way to store hydrogen gas, much like batteries store energy for future use, addressing a major hurdle in developing a clean energy supply chain.
WE Soda (London), a major producer of soda ash, said it intends to launch an IPO and apply to list its shares on the main market of the London Stock Exchange. The company, wholly owned by industrial conglomerate the Ciner Group (Istanbul, Turkey), said it is the world’s largest producer of natural soda ash.
