USA a bright spot for chemical businesses

March 27th, 2019 by Staff

The US, in contrast to Europe, will be a bright spot. There, the cumulative power of spending and investment since the 2008 recession will keep factories humming, and that’s that’s good news for chemical businesses. “The industry is poised for significant growth in output. It’s a very promising outlook,” says Kevin Swift, chief economist at the American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade group for US chemical makers.

High demand for chemicals used in manufacturing will dovetail with a rise in production capacity as new chemical facilities open to take advantage of the shale gas boom, Swift points out. The ACC projects that US chemical output, excluding pharmaceuticals, will rise 3.6% this year, up from an already vigorous 3.1% in 2018.

The biggest factor driving US demand for chemicals is consumer spending. Thanks mainly to job growth, consumer confidence remains at historically high levels. Even jobs in the chemical sector are multiplying after decades of erosion. And continued low unemployment is expected to finally push up wages this year.

Read the entire article here:  https://cen.acs.org/business/World-Chemical-Outlook-2019-Around-the-globe/97/i2