ACC Launches Guide Tracking Economic Trends in Chemical Manufacturing
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Uncertainty about the future of the economy remains a top concern for most Americans. To help get a snapshot of what things look like moving forward for the chemical industry, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) launched a new guide called the Economic Sentiment Index (ESI) Survey.
The ESI is a quarterly index that ACC created to help better understand the state of the chemical industry. The index captures the collective perspectives of member companies regarding their business activities, customer market demand, the economic situation in the current quarter, and their expectations for the coming six months.
The ESI is a composite index comprised of several sub-components that track changes in chemical manufacturers’ perspectives on key business variables that include costs, labor, capital, inventory, and supplier delivery times.
The most recent ESI found that chemical companies expect global economic conditions to stabilize somewhat in the second half of this year. Half of the companies surveyed are expecting conditions to continue as they are, and there is an even split among the rest expecting improvement or deterioration in economic conditions.
The U.S. chemical manufacturers anticipate an improvement in demand from major customer markets and improvement in their own company’s activity level overall by the end of Q3 2023. They see gains in key business variables including output indicators such as volume of new orders and production levels. This is nothing to ignore; cautious optimism in the chemical industry is a good predictor of future economic activity given the industry’s position early in the supply chain for many economic segments.
To learn more, visit www.americanchemistry.com.
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