Impact of COVID-19 attack on the Chemical Industry

The outbreak of the COVID-19 has made the chemical industry under strain owing to the increased infection rate, city shutdowns, and transportation halts across the globe. Chemicals industry plays an important role in the production of countless products such as plastic, fertilizers, medicines and so on. Moreover, chemicals are also required to support good hygiene and the treatment of the victims of the COVID-19. As the cases increased in China in January, several chemical manufacturing plants were shut down due to a shortage of raw materials. As per the CEFIC Chemdata International, in 2018, the chemical sales in China hold for around $1.32 trillion which is expected to be significantly low this year. 

Browse the full report description Impact on Global Chemical Industry due to COVID-19 Pandemic, Deviation & Trends Analysis Report, Chemical Type (Petrochemicals, Basic Inorganic, Polymer, Specialty Chemical, Consumer Chemical, Others) and Forecast 2019-2025 at https://www.omrglobal.com/industry-reports/impact-on-global-chemical-industry-due-to-covid-19-pandemic

According to the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), China is the eighth largest chemical importing nation and the twelfth largest chemical exporting nation across the globe. The US is the only leading exporting country that enjoys a slight trade surplus with China in the area of chemicals. For instance, China accounts for about 70% of the total rubber chemical products across the globe, however, it only consumes about 33-35% of it. Therefore, a slight deviation in the chemical industry of China is anticipated to have a much bigger impact on global customers and suppliers of Chinese producers of chemicals. Due to this, the global companies can move toward other countries for the chemical where the effect of the pandemic is comparatively lower such as India, Brazil, and Vietnam. 

With the outbreak of this pandemic, the demand for the packaging materials has been increased to prevent the contamination of food, medicine, personal care, and medical products thereby creating a huge demand for chemicals involved in the packaging industry. Moreover, the on-going travel restrictions for longer will further affect the chemical industry especially, the business activities that demand face-to-face meetings will suffer. For instance, the ChinaPlas and the Food Ingredients China trade fairs in March/April have been canceled due to the high prevalence of COVID-19.