COVESTRO AG 
On Monday, the industry association VCI reaffirmed its forecast for 2024, which was only raised in May. Production is still expected to increase by 3.5 percent this year and industry turnover by 1.5 percent. Production in the sector, which employs over 560,000 people, already increased by around three percent in the first half of the year - but turnover in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry fell slightly by one percent to around 112 billion euros. "There is a silver lining, but there can be no talk of a stable upward trend," summarized VCI President Markus Steilemann.
The VCI now expects the order situation in the chemical industry to improve further in the second half of the year. Business with foreign countries will remain the main driver. However, the mood in the industry remains subdued. This is also due to high energy prices and increasing bureaucracy in Germany, the association complained. More and more companies are deciding against Germany as a business location. According to a VCI member survey, the industry's investments in Germany fell by two percent to 9.2 billion euros last year. At the same time, investments abroad rose by a good eight percent to around twelve billion euros.
(Report by Matthias Inverardi, edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)
