ACC report: Chemicals industry stabilizes in third quarter
-- Purchasing, 11/19/2009 2:00:00 AM
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A recent report from the American Chemistry Council says that "the global chemical industry is stabilizing, with a bottoming out of activity earlier this year, and recovering activity in nearly all regions since then.
The report, compiled by Thomas Kevin Swift, chief economist and managing director of the American Chemistry Council, says in the U.S., while "American chemistry output is off by double-digits when compared to a year earlier, the pace has stabilized and the year-earlier comparisons are improving."
Swift still says that the chemical industry will undergo a V-shaped recovery and maintain a growth path following industrial production into 2010. "Chemical recoveries have historically been V-shaped," he told attendees at the Chemical Purchasing Summit in September, noting there are signs already of improved purchasing for chlorine and such plastic resins as polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride.
The recovery in the overall economy from the depths of late 2008 and early 2009 is driving chemical demand, according to Swift. He believes the chemicals economy "soon will return to a growth trajectory." However, the sustainability of any long-term recovery will depend on final demand from housing sector, consumer spending and reinvestment in capital equipment, Swift notes. But he also says "there are clear signs that the U.S. housing market, where the financial crisis originated, has bottomed out and is beginning a slow recovery."
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