VINACHEM

LONDON (ICIS)--Chemicals production in the EU increased by 5.5% year on year in October and 11.3% in the first 10 months of 2010 compared with the same period in 2009, industry body Cefic said on Wednesday.

The recovery in production has been steady, growing an average of 0.7% each month since December 2008, Cefic (the European Chemical Industry Council) said in its monthly Chemicals Trends Report.

“Data in October reconfirm that the sector remains on a recovery path led by polymers and basic inorganics – the first group to be hit by the 2008-2009 downturn and the first to recover,” said the group's chief economist, Moncef Hadhri.

Germany, Europe’s largest chemicals producer, registered the highest growth for the first 10 months of 2010, rising by 18.9% year on year.

Poland and Belgium were the first two markets to have reached pre-crisis production levels, but as a whole the sector remained 5.9% below the 2007 peak period.

Basic inorganics, polymers and petrochemicals experienced the strongest production growth while consumer and specialty chemicals recovered at a more modest rate, the report said.

Sales of chemicals in September 2010 were up 14.7% year on year, while chemicals prices rose by 6.3% in October and 5.2% in the first 10 months, compared with 2009.

Based on results from Munich-based economic research group Ifo’s World Economic Survey for the fourth quarter of 2010, the global economic recovery would progress at a slower pace in the first half of 2011, Cefic said.