Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Estimating the Value of a Country's (Region's) Chemical Industry

I am assuming the chemical industry revenues that a country (region) is able to generate divided by the country's (region’s) population can be useful as a measure of that country’s (region’s) chemical industry value added to the country (region).   If this assumption is correct, then the following table is an estimate of the chemical industry value for various countries (regions):

revenues usd 2015
population 2015
revenues per person
Germany
205,000,000,000
81,000,000
2,531
South Korea
120,000,000,000
50,000,000
2,400
Gulf Cooperation Council countries
120,000,000,000
51,000,000
2,353
Japan
210,000,000,000
127,000,000
1,654
United States
490,000,000,000
319,000,000
1,536
NAFTA
625,000,000,000
441,000,000
1,417
European Union
660,000,000,000
508,000,000
1,299
France
85,000,000,000
66,000,000
1,288
China
1,100,000,000,000
1,400,000,000
786
Russia
85,000,000,000
144,000,000
590
Canada
20,000,000,000
35,000,000
571
Global
3,500,000,000,000
7,400,000,000
473
Brazil
85,000,000,000
200,000,000
425
South America
160,000,000,000
423,000,000
378
Asia
1,600,000,000,000
4,400,000,000
364
India
70,000,000,000
1,300,000,000
54


The table suggests that China’s chemical industry is about 14 times more valuable for China than India’s chemical industry is for India ($786 revenue per person vs. $54 revenue per person; 786/54 = 14.56).   And Germany’s chemical industry produces about twice the value for Germany as France’s chemical industry produces for France ($2531 revenue per person/$1,288 revenue per person = 1.97).

The Internet was used to find chemical revenues and population amounts.

A reasonably accurate measurement that indicates the value added by a country’s chemical industry to the country might be useful in measuring progress a country is making over time in increasing its chemical industry value.   Simply increasing a country’s revenues may not be sufficient in understanding how much value is being added by that increase.   Relating (rating) the increase to per persons could be more useful.



Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Some Interesting Data on the Huge Antwerp-Rotterdam Chemical Industry Cluster

A 2014 study entitled “Contribution to Future Oriented Energy Strategy for the Chemical Industry” deals with such topics as the impact of energy and feedstock costs on the competiveness of the Antwerp-Rotterdam (AR) chemical industry cluster.   (Click here to read this study.)  This cluster represents the third largest concentration of chemical companies in the world.

Some major strategic suggestions in the study for increasing the welfare of the chemical companies in the AR cluster include:

-          Increase the synergistic benefits that the cluster can provide to individual 
        chemical companies in the cluster;
-          Encourage cluster members to work together as a whole;
-          Develop cluster-wide expertise in various areas that can be used to influence
        government policy; and
-          Increase integration within the cluster.

In addition to these suggestions for increasing cluster members’ welfare from being in the cluster, data is provided in the study on the AR cluster production and performance.


Management science researchers have long suggested that industrial sector clusters, such as the AR chemical sector cluster, promote the welfare of the individual companies in ways not available to non-clustered companies.   This study should be of interest to other chemical industry clusters, both long-established and emerging.

Friday, February 3, 2017

A Dutch Program for Increasing Electrification in their Chemical Industry

The Dutch-backed program name VoltaChem aims to increase the use of electricity in chemical industry processes.   A VoltaChem white paper provides details on the program (click here to read this whitepaper).

A driving force in using increased electrical energy has to do with the ability to generate this electricity using renewable energy sources, which in turn will led to significant reductions in using fossil fuels in generating the electricity.  The reduction of fossil fuel use is needed in order for The Netherlands to meet European Union carbon dioxide emission standards.  The Netherlands, which currently gets about 10% of its energy from renewable sources, wants to substantially increase this percentage.  A major contribution to this increase is expected to be wind energy, with more major offshore wind farms planned.  Then hopefully this increased renewable energy supply will nicely satisfy a hoped-for increase in electricity demand by the chemical industry.

VoltaChem goals, which are long-term, include increasing chemical industry demands for electrification.   This includes: the use of electricity (versus fossil fuels) in heating processes needed in chemical production; using electricity in generating basic feed stocks such as hydrogen and ammonia; and using electrochemical process in converting feed stocks into higher-value chemical products.



Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert – January 2017

The purpose of this blog is to identify chemical and metal shortages reported on the Internet.  The sources of the information reported here are primarily news releases issued on the Internet.  The issue period of the news releases is January 2017.

Section I below lists those chemicals and metals that were on the previous month’s Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert list and continue to have news releases indicating they are in short supply. Click here to read the December 2016 Chemical and Metal Shortage Alert list.

Section II lists the new chemicals and metals (not on the December alert).  Also provided is some explanation for the shortage and geographical information.  This blog attempts to list only actual shortage situations – those shortages that are being experienced during the period covered by the news releases.  Chemicals and metals identified in news releases as only being in danger of being in short supply status are not listed.

Section I.   Zinc:  global; mining not keeping up with demand
      
Section II.   Shortages Reported in January not found on the Previous Month’s List

Building materials: New Zealand; supply not keeping up with demand
Butadiene:  Taiwan and China; production not keeping up with demand
Coking coal: India; supply not keeping up with demand
Natural latex: Malaysia; supply not keeping up with demand

Reasons for Section II shortages can be broadly categorized as: 

1.  Mining not keeping up with demand: none
2.  Production not keeping up with demand:  butadiene
3.  Government regulations: none
4.  Sources no longer available: none
5.  Insufficient imports:  none
6.  Supply not keeping up with demand:  building materials; coking coal; natural latex