The chemical-pharmaceutical industry ended the Corona year 2020 with a positive fourth quarter. This emerges from the current quarterly report published by the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI).

According to this, Germany's third largest industrial sector was able to increase production and sales significantly compared to the previous quarter. The recovery of the previous months even accelerated, but in the end was not enough to turn the 2020 annual balance overall into positive territory. The trigger for the strong final quarter was the increasing demand for chemical products at home and abroad. The recovery among industrial customers in the chemical industry continued dynamically on all continents. They ordered large quantities of chemicals - also to fill their emptied inbound warehouses.

Because of the increasingly long lockdown, the prospects for the near future for chemical companies are partly clouded. According to a VCI member survey, almost every second company expects a setback in the first quarter. For some companies, there are also material shortages and logistics problems. VCI General Manager Wolfgang Große Entrup says about the situation in the industry: “If the industrial economy continues to develop positively over the year, then the signs are good for the chemical industry. Stronger fluctuations in demand are possible, however. "

For the year 2021, the VCI is now expecting chemical production to grow by 3 percent. Prices are expected to rise 2 percent, so that industry sales can increase by 5 percent to almost 200 billion euros.

Chemical production increased by 7.4 percent from October to December 2020 compared to the previous quarter. Compared to the previous year, production increased by 4 percent. Capacity utilization in the industry improved from 81.6 percent to 85 percent.

Chemical prices continued their recovery course in the fourth quarter. Chemical products cost 0.4 percent more than in the previous quarter. But they were still 1.7 percent cheaper than in the previous year.

The development in production and prices also led to increasing revenues. Industry sales improved from October to December 2020 compared to the previous quarter by 8.1 percent to 47 billion euros. Compared to the previous year, however, it was still 0.6 percent lower.