Data collected and tabulated by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) shows that the global chemical industry ended the first quarter on a soft note. The ACC’s Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) shows that global chemicals production fell 0.3% in March, following a 1.0% drop in February and a 0.6% decline in January. The last gain was 0.3% in December. All data are on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis. During March, production gains were in North America, the Former Soviet Union, and Africa and Middle East with weakness elsewhere. The Global CPRI was up 2.0% year-over-year (Y/Y) on a 3MMA basis and stood at 113.9% of its average 2012 levels in February.
During March, capacity utilization in the global chemical industry eased 0.4 percentage points to 84.1%. This is down from 85.6% last March and below the long-term (1987-2017) average of 86.5%.
ACC’s Global CPRI measures the production volume of the chemical industry for 33 key nations, sub-regions, and regions, all aggregated to the world total. The index is comparable to the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) production indices and features a similar base year where 2012=100. This index is developed from government industrial production indices for chemicals from over 65 nations accounting for about 98% of the total global chemical industry.
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