Over the past few years, much of the devel-opment in the independent bulk liquids storage industry has been directed at winning new chemicals business. The main impetus behind this trend was the continued process of consolidation among chemical manufacturers and their outsourcing of non-core activities, including storage. There are strong signs now that this process has come to an end, certainly in northern Europe, and that as far as terminal operators are concerned the level of demand for chemical capacity is calming down. But, as ever, terminal operators respond largely to local drivers. The US market, for instance, has been affected by high natural gas prices, which have changed the trade flows for many chemical products. And in the developing markets in the Asia-Pacific sector, not least in China, operators are still having to install additional capacity to deal with rapidly growing demand.
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