Chemical production in Europe has seen a 3% growth in the first eight months of this year, compared to the same period last year, cited the recent Cefic Chemicals Trends Report.

As per the report producer, prices have seen a 4.5% drop during the first eight months of 2015 when compared to the same period last year. This August, chemical production has seen an increase of 8%, and a decrease in petrochemical production by 4.9% compared to August 2014.

According to the recent monthly data, chemicals prices in the European Union (EU) have dropped by 4%. During the first seven months of this year, the EU net trade surplus was €27.2bn, which is more than €1.6bn when compared to the previous year.

Among the petrochemical output, polymers recorded a decrease of 0.5% in August.

In contrast, consumer chemicals production has seen a 5.1% rise, while basic inorganic and specialty chemicals have been able to mark a growth of 2.4% in August 2015.

EU chemicals output increased 0.8% in August 2015 year-on-year and for the first eight months it grew 0.3% compared to the same period in 2014. Along with the fall in the production of petrochemical, the price for the same has gone down by 10.4%.

The specialty chemicals sector has also experienced the same rate of fall in price as polymers during the same period.

Through July 2015, the net positive trade balance with non-EU countries, a group including Russia, Turkey and Switzerland, was €5.2bn, which is €1.7bn less when compared to the first seven months of 2014.

The Cefic Chemicals Trends summary is a brief report published every month for its members that includes various chemical industry associations and member companies.

The report offers chemical industry insights of 27 EU countries.

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