(ICIS) -- Germany’s chemical production is
forecast to increase 1.0% year on year in 2012 as growth weakens compared with
2011, the country’s chemical producers’ trade group, Verband der Chemischen
Industrie (VCI), said on Wednesday.
In 2011, Germany’s chemical production is set to grow by 4.0% year on
year, VCI said, below the 5.0% year-on-year growth the group had forecast. “It
is difficult to make an accurate forecast for the coming 12 months,” said Klaus
Engel, the president of VCI and CEO of specialty chemicals major
Evonik.
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Engel pointed to the unresolved government debt crises in the eurozone
and the US as factors causing increasing uncertainties among customers and
producers. VCI hopes a planned summit of EU leaders in Brussels will be able to
resolve the eurozone crisis, he added.
Meanwhile, Germany-based chemicals producers are facing additional
uncertainties from rising electricity costs because of the country’s renewable
energy law, the Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG), and emissions trading. In
2011 alone, the chemical industry’s costs from the EEG and related legislation
added up to EUR 1.3bn (USD1.7bn), Engel said.
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