Impact of COVID-19 attack on China Chemical Industry

The outbreak of the COVID-19 has made the Chinese chemical industry under strain owing to the increased infection rate, city shutdowns, and transportation halts across the nation. China is the main supplier of different chemicals such as plastic, fertilizers, medicines and so on for formation of finished products and so-called intermediate products used in countless industries. 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. As the cases increased in China in January, several chemical manufacturing plants were shut down due to a shortage of raw materials.  The uncertainty imitates a similar condition that occurred in 2017 and 2018, when environmental pressures forced the Chinese manufacturers to shutdown numerous plants in China that resulted in short supply and high prices for specialty chemicals such as polymers. 

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

To combat with this situation chemical manufacturing firms in China are trying to keep businesses running in the face of the coronavirus. Many chemical plants that were closed in January have been reopened in end of February month. According to a news release, most of the petrochemical plants operating in the southeast province of Zhejiang, a major chemical industry hub in China had started their production facilities by February end. However, most chemical plants are running at reduced capacity of around 40-70% owing to the under staffing, lack of raw material. In addition, the weakening demand from the end users due to the economic slowdown is among the key factors that are hindering the efforts of chemical manufacturers to get back to full speed in the country. In order to avoid supply chain disruptions, China is opting for the online distribution channels. 

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. 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. With the outbreak of this pandemic, the country is being lock down that has created the demand for the online delivery of different products which in turn created the demand for the several chemicals such as polymer for packaging materials, Pet for bottle manufacturing among other to prevent the contamination of food, medicine, personal care, and medical products. Moreover, the on-going travel restrictions for longer due to lockdown 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. 

OMR global recently published a report titled ‘the impact of COVID-19 on the China Chemical Industry’. The report includes analyses of different regions and countries. The largest affected market is China, as it is the epicenter of the disease.