European and Global Economic Situation of the Chemical Industry: Achema

摘要

Reading about the financial performance of chemical companies in newspapers and magazines, one might get the impression that our industry is doing not too bad and that our future looks fine. For the short term one could have this feeling, even if 2005 was disappointing. According to our economic outlook forecast of end 2005, output growth in 2005 was indeed expected to grow by only 1.6percent, compared to 2.6percent in 2004. The reason for the slowdown in production growth in 2005 was that the external demand for chemicals was less dynamic due to a deceleration in global economic activity. Unfortunately, domestic demand in Europe could not compensate for the fallback in foreign demand. High crude oil prices (US-dollar 57/bl) had put pressure on private consumption. The various chemical subsectors were impacted to differing degrees by the weaker economic situation in 2005. The year 2005 showed a sharp increase in the production for basic chemicals, especially petrochemicals and inorganics production. By contrast, after having performed very well in 2004, specialty & fine chemicals activity decreased as a consequence of weaker global demand, intensive international competition and cost increases (e.g. oil prices).