MOSCOW (MRC) -- ACC’s chemical activity barometer (CAB), a leading economic indicator and composite of industry activity, rose 0.9% in October on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis, reported Chemweek.
This is significantly smaller than the 1.5% increase in September, and a 2.6% gain in August, indicating a continued economic recovery, albeit at a slower pace.
“With six consecutive months of gains, the October CAB reading remains consistent with recovery in the US economy,” said Kevin Swift, chief economist at ACC.
Production-related indicators for September were mixed, but leaning positive. Trends were positive for construction-related resins, pigments, and resins and chemistry used in light vehicles and durable goods. Trends were mixed for plastic resins used in packaging, and in consume and institutional applications. Equity prices, product and input prices, and supply chain indicators were also positive.
As MRC wrote previously, US chemical volumes are expected to drop nearly 10% this year as global economic activity contracts due to the impacts of COVID-19, according to the American Chemistry Council's (ACC) Mid-Year 2020 Chemical Industry Situation and Outlook. Volumes should recover in 2021 with a return to pre-COVID-19 output levels in the US by the second half of 2021.
We remind that Russia's output of chemical products rose in September 2020 by 6.7% year on year. At the same time, production of basic chemicals increased by 6.1% year on year in the first nine months of 2020, according to Rosstat's data. According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the greatest increase in the January-September output. Last month's production of primary polymers decreased to 852,000 tonnes from 888,000 tonnes in August due to shutdowns in Tomsk, Ufa and Kazan. Overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 7,480,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 16.4% year on year.
MRC