By Patricia Weiss<\/p>\n
FRANKFURT, May 12 (Reuters) – Europe’s embattled chemicals industry is getting an unexpected lift from the Iran war, as supply disruptions raise costs for Asian rivals \u200cand customers prioritise reliability over price.<\/p>\n
“The conflict in the Middle East is, in our view, \u200cleading to temporarily more favourable market conditions for the European chemical industry,” Lanxess CEO Matthias Zachert said, citing reduced competitive \u200bpressure from Asia.<\/p>\n
For years, European producers have struggled with high energy costs, weak demand and intense price competition from Asian peers. As recently as March, Germany’s VCI industry body warned of severe bottlenecks from disrupted shipping routes and said the sector was in “absolute crisis mode”.<\/p>\n
Executives now say those same disruptions are, \u200cfor now, shifting the balance.<\/p>\n
Evonik’s interim CFO \u2060Claus Rettig said the change is rooted in supply chains. European firms tend to produce closer to end markets and rely more on local raw \u2060materials, while many Asian competitors depend on Middle East feedstocks.<\/p>\n
“Our production and our customer deliveries are secured,” Rettig said.<\/p>\n
He cautioned the improvement may reflect customers bringing orders forward rather than a lasting recovery.<\/p>\n
NO EUPHORIA<\/p>\n
Evonik has \u200bseen \u200ba recent pickup in demand. CEO Christian Kullmann called \u200bApril “pretty sexy,” pointing to stronger sales volumes, \u200cbut said this did not signal a sustained rebound.<\/p>\n
At Lanxess, Zachert said volumes have been rising since March, driven by a gradual recovery and easing price pressure from Asia, rather than panic buying or stockpiling.<\/p>\n
Belgian chemicals group Solvay is seeing a similar trend. CFO Alexandre Blum said competitive pressure from China has eased in some segments, with no clear sign of advance purchasing.<\/p>\n
CEO Philippe Kehren said \u200cSolvay’s regional setup was working to its advantage. “Our model \u200bof producing regionally and using local raw materials is \u200bproving extremely resilient,” he said.<\/p>\n
Still, the industry \u200burged caution.<\/p>\n
“A few good numbers” do not amount to a broader recovery, VCI \u200chead Wolfgang Grosse Entrup told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Germany’s BASF also \u200bflagged fragility, with gains \u200bin some segments offset by higher energy, raw material and logistics costs.<\/p>\n
“The current situation is too volatile to make more far-reaching statements,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
For now, executives see the improvement \u200bas temporary, rather than a \u200cstructural turnaround, and that Asian competition could strengthen again quickly if supply chains stabilise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Patricia Weiss FRANKFURT, May 12 (Reuters) – Europe’s embattled chemicals industry is getting an unexpected lift from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[266323,266324,2000,299,5187,266322],"class_list":["post-954132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-asian-rivals","tag-competitive-pressure","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-matthias-zachert"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116559902843846354","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}