Chemical Executives’ Top Management Initiatives in 2013 & 2014

The graph below was created using Google’s graphing tools.

The graph shows the top 9 initiatives that top executives at chemical companies plan to take in 2013 and 2014.

The data in the graph was obtained by KPMG International in a 2012 KPMG survey of approximately 155 top US, European, and Asian Pacific chemical company executives.  The executives were asked to select the top initiative planned.  The graph shows the selections by percentage.

Click here to go to the KPMG report showing the results of this survey.

Besides top management initiatives, other areas surveyed and reported on include:  cash on hand; planned capital expenditures; highest strategic priorities; and expected revenues.

Interesting in the results is the high percentage of respondents who selected making significant changes in their business model as the top priority.  Just what this means with respect to the other initiatives that could have been selected, e.g., new products and geographic expansions is not clear, except that it suggests problems with the current business model.

Finding Chemical Prices on the Internet

My experience has been that finding current prices on the Internet for bulk-size amounts of chemicals is difficult, without providing information to the suppliers.  Producers and distributors of chemicals are willing to provide quotes, but require information from the requestor, e.g. requestor name, amounts, use, etc, before providing a quote, and likely only after the vendor judges the request to be legitimate.   Because pricing is likely to depend on so many factors, such as amounts, requestor, location, etc, the vendor’s need to obtain information from the requestor is understandable.  (This difficulty in obtaining chemical price data does not apply to laboratory quantities of chemicals.  Prices for laboratory sizes are readily available on the Internet without needing to send a request to the vendor.)

Although difficult, with determination, time, and the right search strategies, relative recent (but not current vendor’s pricing without contacting the vendor) bulk chemical prices often can be found on the Internet.  For example, with rigorous searching, I was able to find relatively recent bulk prices (2010, 2011, and/or 2012), with various terms and delivery locations, for the following chemicals:  benzene; sulfuric acid; titanium dioxide; sodium hydroxide (caustic acid); glycerin; polycarbonate; soda ash; caprolactam; ethylene; propylene; p-xylene; and polystyrene.  These were most, if not all, the chemical prices I searched for. 

The US Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics maintains producer price indexes for several categories of chemicals, e.g. petrochemicals; industrial gases; synthetic dyes and pigments; basic inorganic compounds; basic organic compounds; and plastics and resins.  (Click here to access these indexes.)   These chemical price indexes might be useful in projecting a dated price found on the Internet for a chemical, e.g. a 2010 or 2011 price, to a more recent price.  However, because of chemical price volatility, and probably other factors, using the chemical price index may not always give projected prices that are reasonable close to the actual current prices.

Chemical Industry Data and Statistics at Other US Government Departments and Agencies

In two previous blogs, chemical industry data and statistics found at the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Census Bureau were identified and links were provided to the data and statistics.  In this blog, other US Government departments and agencies where chemical industry data and statistics can be found are identified.

The US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics maintains a website at which data and statistics are provided on the chemical manufacturing industry.  Click here to go to the site.   Data and statistics provided include: employment, unemployment, and earnings; workplace injuries; chemical industry price indexes; the number of chemical industry establishments (a location where operations are preformed); productivity indexes for the chemical industry; and chemical industry job descriptions and job data.

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration maintains a website which provides a window (portal) into data related to the hazards and handling of chemicals.  Click here to go to this site.  Many websites can be linked to from this site that provide hazards, handling, and toxicity data for chemical materials and suggested responses to accidental release and exposure of chemical materials.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) maintains a website at which much information can be found on metals and minerals.  Click here to go to this site.   This website serves as a portal (window) to the USGS’s databases on metals and mineral materials.   Much information that can be linked to from this portal on metals and minerals is important data and statistics for the chemical industry.  For example, from this portal, data and statistics on the supply of, demand for, and flow of metals and minerals can be obtained (click “commodity” at the page's center).  Click here to go to this data and statistics source.

These three US Government departments and agencies, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics and Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Interior Department’s US Geological Survey provide a large amount of data and statistics relevant to the chemical industry.

Chemical Industry Data Found at the US Census Bureau Website

Census Bureau survey results from US chemical companies provide reliable and relevant data on various characteristics and attributes of the US chemical industry. This blog identifies a lot of this data available at the Census Bureau website.

Click here to find total US production (monthly, quarterly, and annual) quantities for several chemical industry sub-sectors.  The number of companies producing in the sub-sectors is also provided in the annual reports.

Click here to find shipment quantities for the chemical industry sub-sectors.   Data is provided for a month, year to date, and previous period.

Click here to find financial data for four groups: basic chemicals, resins, and synthetics; pharmaceuticals and medicines; plastics and rubber products; and “all other chemicals”.   Financial data includes: $ sales; operating profits; and after tax profits.  Modified income statements and balance sheets are provided for each of the four groups.  Returns on equity, sales, and other ratios are provided.  Comparisons are made with previous periods.

Click here to find plant utilization rates and average plant hours per week quantities for several chemical industry sub-sectors.

Click here to find data on dozens of chemical industry sub-sectors.   Data includes: salary and benefits; cost of goods sold; inventory; number of companies in the sub-sector; capital expenditures; and shipment values.  Custom searches need to be created to go to the sub-sector data.

Click here to find the number of chemical industry “establishments” and employees by zip code, state, and/or metropolitan region.  Data is provided on chemical industry sub-sectors.

Click here to find US international trade data.  Total import and export data is provided for all chemical industry sub-sectors and for each sub-sector.  Data is provided by country and for all countries.

Click here to find data on the quantities of chemical materials shipped by various transportation modes (e.g. rail, pipeline, etc).  Data is provided by chemical industry sub-sectors.  Also data is provided on shipments of hazardous materials.

Click here to go to go to where a list NAICS codes pertaining to the chemical industry can be generated.  Search on 325 (the NAICS digits that all chemical industry sub-sectors begin with) or search on the term “chemical” which will bring up all NAICS code with the word chemical in the NAICS title. The search result will be a list of the NAICS codes meeting the search criteria.  From this list, you can click to Census Bureau data pertaining to the specific NAICS code of interest.

The US Census Bureau provides very relevant and useful data and statistics.  This information has been provided by companies to the Census Bureau via surreys.   There is no more reliable data for the topics surveyed than is provided by the Census Bureau.

Data and Statistics on the US Chemical Industry at US Government Websites

The US Government has significant amounts of data and statistics on the US chemical industry posted at various websites.  In the next few blogs, I will identify some of the data and statistics available at these US Government sites.  This first blog will start with some of what is available at the Environmental Protection Agency.  Then later blogs will cover the Census Bureau and other US Government departments and agencies.

At this portal (click here), EPA provides links to performance and other data related to the chemical manufacturing sector.   Although EPA does not update the performance information available, what is available should serve as a good benchmark for recent chemical industry performance data and trends.

This site also serves as a good starting point for connecting to EPA compliance and other information for the chemical industry and for connecting to non-EPA sites, judged by EPA as important in some way to users seeking information on the US chemical industry.

This EPA site is one of several US Government sites which offer a good starting place for finding data and statistics about the chemical industry.  In my next blog, the US Census Bureau will be covered.