AFP, Frankfurt Am Main :
A strong 2017 powered by faster global growth has boosted confidence for this year in Germany’s massive chemicals sector, an industry federation said Wednesday, while cautioning against threats of an EU-US trade war.
The chemical and pharmaceutical industry in Europe’s largest economy should boost revenues 4.5 percent year-on-year in 2018, according to the Federation of the Chemical Industry (VCI), powered by higher production and a modest increase in prices.
Such a pace would mean a slight slowdown from last year’s 6.0-percent sales growth to almost 196 billion euros ($243 billion) across the sector.
A synchronised global economic upturn has fired industrial production and increased demand from manufacturers, making chemical producers’ outlook “just as positive as during the last boom phase between 2004 and 2008,” VCI director Utz Tillmann told reporters in Frankfurt.
One cloud on the horizon is the looming threat of a transatlantic trade war, which has intensified over the past week as US President Donald Trump vowed to slap tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
While there is no sign yet that Washington will target chemical makers, “the uncertainty of Trump’s trade policy could have a braking effect,” Tillmann said.
The European Union has already warned it would respond to US tariffs with levies of its own on politically sensitive goods like motorcycles, orange juice and bourbon.
“Fault lines between such large trading partners as the EU and US could influence the global upturn negatively” and sap demand for chemical makers’ wares, Tillmann said.
Chemical and pharmaceutical makers form Germany’s third-largest industry by revenues, employing around 450,000 people in firms ranging from global giants like BASF or Bayer to small family companies.
A strong 2017 powered by faster global growth has boosted confidence for this year in Germany’s massive chemicals sector, an industry federation said Wednesday, while cautioning against threats of an EU-US trade war.
The chemical and pharmaceutical industry in Europe’s largest economy should boost revenues 4.5 percent year-on-year in 2018, according to the Federation of the Chemical Industry (VCI), powered by higher production and a modest increase in prices.
Such a pace would mean a slight slowdown from last year’s 6.0-percent sales growth to almost 196 billion euros ($243 billion) across the sector.
A synchronised global economic upturn has fired industrial production and increased demand from manufacturers, making chemical producers’ outlook “just as positive as during the last boom phase between 2004 and 2008,” VCI director Utz Tillmann told reporters in Frankfurt.
One cloud on the horizon is the looming threat of a transatlantic trade war, which has intensified over the past week as US President Donald Trump vowed to slap tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
While there is no sign yet that Washington will target chemical makers, “the uncertainty of Trump’s trade policy could have a braking effect,” Tillmann said.
The European Union has already warned it would respond to US tariffs with levies of its own on politically sensitive goods like motorcycles, orange juice and bourbon.
“Fault lines between such large trading partners as the EU and US could influence the global upturn negatively” and sap demand for chemical makers’ wares, Tillmann said.
Chemical and pharmaceutical makers form Germany’s third-largest industry by revenues, employing around 450,000 people in firms ranging from global giants like BASF or Bayer to small family companies.
