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.