20.06.2014 • News

The EU Chemical Industry in a Global Context

(CHEManager International 3/2014) EU Chemical Sales Last month, CEFIC released its latest Facts and Figures report providing the most up-to-date information about the EU chemicals sector. The report gives the newest full-year data available (2012) and analyzes the long-term development. EU chemicals sales continued to rise in 2012, climbing to €558 billion
(Fig. 1). Despite the increase, the world chemicals market has expanded faster during the last two decades than in the EU, leading to a further decrease in the EU share of global chemicals output, standing at 17.8% in 2012. China clearly holds the top spot in world chemicals production, with sales in Asia dwarfing other regions.

World Chemicals Output World chemicals turnover was valued at €3,127 billion in 2012. This marks a significant recovery of the chemical industry compared with the previous years. Global sales went up by 12.8% in 2012 compared with 2011. Within the decade from 2002 to 2012 world chemicals sales increased by 2.3 times in value terms. During the past ten years the EU gradually lost its top spot in world chemicals sales to China and the rest of Asia (excluding Japan), although the total value of sales in the European Union has actually been continuously growing. China reached 30.5% of world chemicals sales market share in 2012 - the same share the EU chemical industry held in 2002 (Fig. 2).

EU World Market Share Developments during the last 20 years from 1992 to 2012 indicate that the EU was in a much stronger position than today. In 1992, the EU posted sales of €290 billion, which made up 35.2% of world chemicals sales. From then on, chemicals sales have been growing continuously, reaching an overall increase of 92% in value terms to €558 billion in 2012. When including non-EU countries, total sales for the region were €673 billion in 2012. However, world chemicals sales have increased at a much faster pace. Global sales quadrupled from €826 billion in 1992 to €3,127 billion in 2012. As a consequence, the EU chemicals market share has halved from 1992 to 2012 (Fig. 3).

Share of European Countries Germany is the largest chemicals producer in Europe, followed by France, the Netherlands and Italy. Together these four countries generated 62.6% of EU chemicals sales in 2012, valued at €349 billion. The share rises to nearly 87.7%, or €489 billion, when including the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium and Poland. The other 19 EU countries generated 12.3% of EU chemicals sales in 2012, valued at €51.7 billion, nearly half of which was attributed to four of these countries - Austria, Sweden, Czech Republic and Finland (Fig. 4). Despite losing the top spot in world chemicals production, the EU chemical industry still holds the world top ranking in total trade.