CHEManager International 6/2015     Global Chemicals Sales     World chemicals turnover was valued at €3,156 billion in 2013. Global sales grew by 2.4% from €3,084 billion in 2012 to €3,156 billion in 2013. World chemicals sales in 2013 grew nearly €73 billion compared with 2012, marking a modest recovery in the world chemical industry. It was largely driven by China, where chemicals sales swelled from €918 billion in 2012 to €1,047 billion in 2013, a 33.2% share of the global total. The EU chemicals industry ranks second, along with the United States in total sales. When including both the European Union and non-EU countries in Europe, total sales reached €630 billion in 2013, or 20% of world chemicals sales in value terms.



EU Chemicals Trade Partners     The top 10 EU chemical trade partners accounted for 70% of exports and imports. The US is by far the EU’s biggest trading partner in chemicals. It buys €26 billion of EU exports, nearly 20% of the EU chemicals total every year, whilst providing €20 billion of EU imports. The Gulf Cooperation Council was the fifth largest trade partner of the European chemical industry, with a trade flow of €11 billion. In 2013, €152 billion of chemicals were sold in Japan, making it the world’s third-biggest market, but with €11 billion of EU-Japan imports and exports, it ranks on position seven among trading partners for the EU chemical industry. EU-India trade in the chemicals sector accounted for €7.2 billion, a 3.1% share.



EU Chemicals Trade Areas      Output from the EU chemical industry covers three broad product areas: base chemicals, specialty chemicals and consumer chemicals. In 2013, base chemicals – which cover petrochemicals and their polymers along with basic inorganics – represented 61.8% of total EU chemicals sales. Specialty chemicals cover the areas such as paints and inks, crop protection, dyes and pigments and made up 26.5% of total EU chemicals sales in 2013. Consumer chemicals, such as soaps and detergents as well as perfumes and cosmetics, represented 11.7% of total EU chemicals sales in 2013. Petrochemicals and specialty chemicals accounted for the majority, 53.1% of total EU chemicals sales in 2013.




Global Chemical Exports     Over the past 20 years the EU export market share decreased substantially, due to declining competitiveness as opposed to slow-growing destination markets. This means that the EU’s export growth did not keep pace with the growth of world export growth. Declines have also been seen in other developed nations at the expense of China and Saudi Arabia, although the magnitude of the European decline is larger than that of the US. The decline has been driven primarily by petrochemicals and polymers. Due to the erosion of competitiveness, the EU has slipped from number three to four out of seven leading global chemical exporters with regard to absolute levels of competitiveness. (rk)