EU chemicals production declined 2.4% in February from a year earlier, latest data from European industry body Cefic showed Wednesday, mainly reflecting the economic slowdown across the continent.
This brought the reduction to 2.2% in the January-February period, Cefic said, adding production levels in the region remained 5.3% below their 2007 peak.
"EU chemicals production was negatively affected in the first quarter by continued deterioration in the EU business climate and weak macroeconomic activity," said Moncef Hadhri, Cefic's chief economist.
"The sector's downward growth trend is partly the result of financial turbulence stemming from the European debt crisis and the intensifying fiscal consolidation efforts in most EU member states," he added.
Prices for chemicals rose 4.4% in February from a year ago, continuing from the 4.2% increase in January, Cefic said in its monthly chemicals trend report.
Increased feedstock and raw material costs, driven mainly by the jump in crude oil prices, were largely behind the price rises, industry sources said.
By sub-sector, consumer chemicals was the only one to have managed to avoid a drop in February, with production up 0.7% year-on-year.
The rest reported declined, led by basic inorganics and specialty chemicals, production of which fell 5.2% and 4.5% respectively. Petrochemicals dropped 3.5%, while polymers declined 2.6%, it added.
For January, the EU chemical sector reported a net trade surplus of Eur4.1 billion ($5.4 billion), Cefic's latest data showed.
EU trade with North America resulted in a Eur1.1 billion net trade surplus in January, while with Asia, excluding Japan and China, the surplus reached Eur500 million, down from Eur400 million in January.
