EU chemical production in July fell 2.1% year-on-year, extending the downtrend into the 11th month, calendar-adjusted data from statistics agency Eurostat showed Wednesday.
However, output recovered 1% from the low so far this year in June.
In the eurozone, chemical output was down 1.5% year-on-year but up 1.2% from June.
Among major producer countries, chemical output fell in the UK (7.8% year-on-year), Germany (3.4%), Spain (2.4%) and France (0.1%), while the Netherlands continued to buck the trend with a 5.4% rise.
Data for Italy were not available.
The partial recovery from June was helped by gains in Germany (2.1%), the UK (1.4%), the Netherlands (4%) and France (0.1%), while Spanish output fell 3.1%.
On the segment level, Eurostat's initial estimates indicate a 5.4% year-on-year fall in EU base chemicals output, including a 6.4% drop for primary plastics, a 5.1% fall for inorganic base chemicals and a 2.5% decrease for organic base chemicals.
Across the entire manufacturing sector, output fell 1.5% year-on-year in the EU and shrank 2.3% in the euro area, dragged down by sharp falls in Italy (7.3%) and Spain (5.4%).
