German chemical production and sales increased last year

Source: China National Chemical News May 23, 2019

According to the latest data released by the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), the German chemical production in 2018 increased by 3.6% compared with 2017. Regardless of pharmaceuticals, production fell by 2.2% year-on-year. Sales increased by 3.8% year-on-year, reaching 2030 billion euros (about 228 billion US dollars). Its domestic sales increased by 1.9% year-on-year to 76.3 billion euros.

At the same time, exports increased by 5% to 126.7 billion euros. There are 462,553 employees in the German chemical industry, an increase of 2.1% over the end of 2017.

According to VCI, the capacity utilization rate of the chemical industry rose to 84.1% in 2018. It is expected that the German chemical production will drop by 3.5% in 2019. Producer prices are expected to rise by 1%. As a result, sales revenue will fall by 2.5% to 197.9 billion euros.