Chemical Industry News
Performance Analysis on UK Chemical Industry
Thursday, 10, June 2010
The chemical industry lies at the heart of UK manufacturing, providing ingredients that are essential to many other manufacturing processes and employing large numbers of people. Industry turnover is high and the industry represents around 12% of value added in manufacturing, equivalent to 1.5% of gross domestic product (GDP). Trends in export earnings and the growing balance of trade surplus would seem to suggest that the industry is becoming increasingly competitive internationally.
Some manufacturing is being transferred overseas, primarily to areas where labour costs are lower or because production requires plentiful supplies of cheap raw materials, but the UK remains home to a wide range of successful companies that are focused on innovative, high-value areas of the market.UK manufacturers' total sales of chemicals, chemical products and man-made fibres increased in value by 3.6% over the review period (2005 to 2009), to reach 62.62bn at manufacturers' selling prices (msp).