2025 Q2 Europe Chemical Trends Report Released by European Chemical Industry Council

2025 9Month, European Chemical Industry Council (CeficThe European chemical trends report for the second quarter has been released.

Today we will take...CeficReflecting on one's own trend report, let's review the performance of the European chemical industry in the first half of this year, and use this article as the conclusion of the European chemical series.

The report shows European chemical industry2025The negative growth situation in the first half of the year has been completely reversed.2024A brief momentum of weak recovery this year.

The above content translates to: "It more fully exposes that the competitiveness of European chemical industry has been systematically disrupted, and their crisis is deep-rooted."

Chemical industry2025In the first half of the year, it once again fell into the mire of negative growth, not only reversing...2024The weak recovery momentum of the year further exposes the deep-seated crisis of its competitiveness being systematically eroded.

This crisis is not caused by cyclical fluctuations due to the chemical cycle, but rather is the result of high energy costs, structural demand weakness, and imbalances in the global trade pattern.“Perfect Storm”。

The following viewpoints are all from the report. If you need the complete report, please download it yourself.

The editor will put the cloud drive link to the original report at the end of the article.

Lacking core competitiveness, difficult to overcome.“Energy Gap”

The report shows that the competitiveness of the European chemical industry has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

They believe the main reason is the stark competition in energy prices.

2025The price of natural gas in Europe has consistently been around three times that of the United States.

For the chemical industry, natural gas serves as both energy and raw material, so the burdens are doubled, and the "shackles" are thickened.

This insurmountable "energy gap" has a comprehensive and fatal impact on the European chemical industry.

The most important issue is the outflow of basic industries. Europe is completely unable to compete with the United States and the Middle East, which naturally possess low-cost energy advantages, in major chemicals such as ethylene, propylene, and ammonia. Moreover, it cannot compete with our country, which has both scale and cost advantages.

These basic chemicals are also raw materials for many fundamental industries. Without the advantage of low costs, the outflow of basic industries may not be limited to just the chemical industry.

Another particularly important aspect is the suppression of long-term investment, according to the report's forecast.2030The energy price gap between Europe and the United States will continue to exist for years to come.

This affects not only the current operating costs but will also further force global capital to exclude Europe from priority options when planning new production capacity, and many industries may face this situation.“Hollowing-out”Risk.

2. Capacity Underutilization, Lack of Confidence, Vicious Cycle

The most direct manifestation of losing competitiveness is the continued low utilization rate of production capacity.

2025In the third quarter of the year, the capacity utilization rate of the EU chemical industry has generally decreased to...74.6%, far below its long-term average level.81.3%, which is far lower than that of its American counterparts.90%。

This means that more than the European chemical industry25%The production equipment is idle.

The capacity utilization rate is an electrocardiogram measuring industrial vitality; it's no wonder to feel anxious with long-term arrhythmia.

Long-term low capacity utilization can lead production facilities into a vicious cycle.

Due to high costs leading to decreased competitiveness, orders have reduced and capacity limitations mean that production facilities can only operate at low loads./Stop operation, which further increases its production costs.

The competitiveness of the enterprise is lower, which seriously affects the company's profits, leading to a lack of confidence and motivation for reinvestment and innovation.

2025 7In Europe, the business confidence index has seen a slight rebound, but this surpasses“ ”The faint optimism is clearly no match for the harsh reality.

Three, both internal and external demand face setbacks, leading to overall weakness in the industrial chain.

The chemical industry is the "engine" of manufacturing, and the strong release of downstream demand directly affects the health of the chemical industry.

2025In the first half of the year, the demand from downstream manufacturing in the European chemical industry has shrunk significantly, although the overall output of the EU manufacturing sector has seen a slight increase.1.0%However, the most critical customer in the downstream of the chemical industry is the automotive sector, where actual output has plummeted by more than...4%。

In other important sectors such as construction, home appliances, and daily consumer goods, demand remains sluggish and is unlikely to revive in the short term.

Due to weak downstream demand,2025The output of the European chemical industry decreased in the first half of the year.2.4%，2024The annual growth has increased.2.4%

The current overall output level of the European chemical industry is compared to2017-2018The peak of the year was approximately lower by10%。

The difficulties faced by the European chemical industry are not only due to external competition but also the impact of a decline in overall vitality within the industry chain.

4. Sharp Reduction in Trade Surplus, Global Shift to the East

In addition to the above two reasons, more importantly, the eastward shift of the global industrial pattern is a major historical trend.

18 60The period from the beginning of the First Industrial Revolution to the present.260For many years, Europe has been benefiting from the technological dividends brought by the Industrial Revolution.

After decades of relentless efforts by the mysterious Eastern forces, the situation has now changed, and the path to revival, returning to the pinnacle, has been cleared.

On the stage of global trade, the traditional advantages of the European chemical industry are diminishing and are not far from being completely lost.

The trade surplus continues to narrow.2025In the first half of the year, the EU's chemical exports can be said to have stagnated, with only a slight increase.0.5%。

The imports, however, can be described as having strong growth.5.4%The trade surplus has sharply decreased.17%Lower to201100 million euros.

The internal market of Europe is increasingly being invaded by external chemical products, putting not only the external market at risk but also threatening the internal market.

The focus of global industrial production is shifting eastward, as traditional chemical powerhouses in the EU are falling into a quagmire of negative growth. For instance, Germany has reduced by approximately-2.7%。

While the EU countries experienced negative growth, our country still maintained rapid growth.+8%The United States has grown.+2.6%Brazil has soared.+4.3%and has begun to show signs of resilient recovery.

The decrease and increase mentioned above serve as evidence of the shift in the industrial focus of the global chemical industry and the entire manufacturing sector from Europe to other regions.

5. Uncertainty in Foresight and Transformation for Survival

Reflecting on the past and looking to the future, the prospects for the European chemical industry are filled with many uncertainties.

The tense geopolitical situation, frequent global trade frictions, and Europe's weak economy are all very serious challenges.

According to conventional logic, the other side of a crisis may be an opportunity.

The report points out that this predicament is also forcing European chemical companies to accelerate their strategic transformation.

Continuing to compete on cost in bulk chemicals is doomed to fail, leaving no room for survival.

However, by focusing resources on high value-added, innovative specialty chemicals, sustainable materials, and circular economy solutions, it may be possible to build new and hard-to-replicate core competencies.

Of course, in the editor's view, this kind of thinking still stands on the horn of the technological leader; is the technological dividend in Europe still there?

Final Remarks

CeficThe report is a health examination report for occupational health in the European chemical industry issued by an authoritative institution.

The European chemical industry is not suffering from a minor cold, but rather a long-term chronic illness that requires deep structural treatment.

This is not only related to millions of jobs in the entire industry but also concerns the foundation of innovation and strategic autonomy of the entire European manufacturing sector.