FACTS & FIGURES FOR THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

Although 2003 may have been the preface, 2004 was the story of the turnaround in the fortunes of chemical producers around the world. Last year at this time, C&EN was saying that while it did not show up in the annual figures, the fourth quarter of 2003 showed major improvement in economies around the world and that it looked like the trend was continuing in 2004.
And the turnaround did expand in most chemical-producing countries. In the U.S., the most important chapter was the increase in prices, which, when combined with cost cutting, helped pull chemical company earnings sharply higher.
But there were other important trends. Production volumes increased in most countries. The laggards were mainly in European countries where national economies are not expanding as fast as those for other countries around the world.
Employment is still falling in many areas, but in the U.S., at least, this means that labor productivity is improving.
In the era of globalization, foreign trade has become an ever more important aspect of the chemical industry. Many of the countries saw their chemical exports expand in double-digit percentages in 2004. Often they were growing faster than imports, providing improvements in chemical trade balances.