CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING
NEWS The Chemical World This Week
VOLUME 39, NUMBER 8
FEBRUARY 20, 1961
Europe's Chemical Industry Scores Sharp Gains OEEC countries sold $16.9 billion worth of chemicals in 1959, an 11.5% increase over 1958, new OEEC report shows Growth of Europe's chemical industry shows no sign of slowing down. Sales of chemical products produced in Organization for European Economic Cooperation countries in 1959 rose to $16.9 billion from $15.2 billion in 1958, an 11.5% increase, according to OEEC's seventh annual report on the chemical industry. The increase in sales was the highest since 1954. In 1959, sales of chemical products in the U.S. reached S25.7 billion, an 1 1 % increase over the previous year. Four OEEC countries account for 85% of Europe's total chemical output. France turns out 17%, West .Germany 27%, Italy 14%, and Great Britain 27%. But the high rate of increase in chemical production from 1958 to 1959 was not confined to these four countries, says OEEC's report. In fact, only in the Netherlands was the increase in chemical output (6%) lower than the increase in general industrial production (10%). Inmost other OEEC countries, chemical production was up far more than the general industrial index of production.
The report says the chemical labor force increased in nearly every OEEC country in 1959; price trends were stable or fell, moving less than the prices of commodities in general. Investment was up in the chemical industry of Denmark, France, West Germany, Italy, and Sweden in 1959, down in Belgium and Britain. The aggregate investment in the nine European countries accounting for about 95% of value added by the chemical industry dropped slightly from 1958's $1.21 billion to $1.19 billion in 1959, although during 1960 investment outlays probably recovered and may reach a record high during 1961. Investment in chemical and allied industries (a somewhat broader field than OEEC's definition) in the U.S. was $1.32 billion in 1958 and $1.23 billion in 1959. Catching Up. Although the total capital investment in chemical plants now in operation in Europe and the U.S. is not known, it is obvious, says the report, that the U.S. has accumulated considerably more capital in its
chemical industry than has Europe. The expansion in chemicals which has taken place throughout the world during the past 20 years had an earlier start in the U.S. than in Europe, the report explains. While investments during 1958 and 1959 were not much different in OEEC countries and the U.S., European chemical investment amounted to 17% of value added by chemical production in 1959, compared with only 9% for investment by chemical producers in the U.S. This, says the report, is probably because Europe is now trying to catch up to the U.S.'s lead in the amount of accumulated capital invested in its chemical industry. In the U.S., too, more capital equipment is used per employee. New Plants. Heavy investment last year (particularly in petrochemical installations ), the new spurt in chemical activity due to exploitation of natural gas finds, and the growth of U.S. chemical operations in Europe all contributed to increased European chemical output.
Soviet Bloc and Japan Are Moving into World Markets Sales of Chemicals to India and Four Latin America?! Markets, Millions of Dollars OEEC 1958 India
1959
$127.0 $89.8
Canada
U.S. 1958
1959
$ 21.8 $ 22.5
Japan
Soviet Bloc
1958 1959
1958 1959
1958
$1.2 $1.9
$3.9 $8.4
$2.4 $3.7
1959
Brazil
54.0
57.0
57.0
54.0
1.5
1.2
3.4
2.9
4.8
4.0
Mexico
23.7
31.3
102.9
108.7
7.1
7.6
0.4
1.4
0.2
0.1
Argentina
47.2
39.7
34.0
19.7
0.4
0.3
1.3
1.4
0.6
1.6
0.1
0.04 0.6
Colombia Source:
21.8
15.3
37.9
27.5
4.2
4.4
0.0
OEEC FEB.
2 0, 1 9 6 1
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