Analyzing the Chemical & Petrochemical Industry in United States

The chemical industry world over always enjoys a love-hate relationship with communities. Driven by many objectives as well as balancing social concerns with profit and R&D investments, the industry often finds itself straddled with key questions bordering on growth and ensuring sustenance in collaboration with the community.

The US Chemical Industry is the world' s largest producer by a substantial margin with a balance of trade surplus in excess of $15 billion. It is a major player contributing 21% in GDP to the US economy. This growth has led many theorists to conclude that the industry is a "harvester" rather than an "investor" for future growth.

The strength of this industry lies in its contribution to the employment scenario wherein it supplants millions of households in its production as well as indirectly in the R&D sector. The industry has implemented measures to attain energy efficiency and has completed major strides in improving the environment.

Meanwhile, the US Petrochemicals Industry has undergone lifecycle path phases from initial growth augmentation to slowing down in marginal returns and thereafter facing possible downturns aided by many factors of competitive or resource constraints. Some of these constraints are visibly manifested in the manner of high feedstock prices which are forcing many of U.S. giants to reassess their bottom line priorities in comparison to global players and resulting in taking a back foot on overall market activity interest.

High feedstock prices have forced producers to reconsider their investment scenario settings and tweaking is evident in the realigned strategic goal movement of the industry as a whole. The lack of investment focus is also resulting in labor issues for rates which are directly impacting production. The change of stance to short term investment reaping instead of long term capital building efforts are being exercised through organizational efficiencies and asset management systems.

The future of the US petrochemical industry appears to be uncertain at present with the imbalance create in the market by the high feedstock process and the industry seems to be poised to become a net importer by 2010 rather than the dominant exporter role it once played. The abundance of feedstock has diminished over the years and this has hit producers further with increasing costs.

Aruvian Research' s report Analyzing the Chemical & Petrochemical Industry in the United States analyzes both these lucrative industries in two sections. The first section covers the US chemical industry. This section researches the characteristics of the US chemical industry and the segments which, as a whole, make up this dynamic machinery of growth. The massive globalization strides taken by the industry as explained in the report with the requirement of heavy capital investment that brings in more competition and the overall focus of the industry to meet the environmental challenge.

The section delves deeper into the processes applied in the US chemical industry and their defining global standards thereby ensuring leadership in exports as well as attracting FDI in the industry. The industry' s dynamics like competition, infrastructure and the regulatory policies with the reporting requirements deployed on the industry are explained by the section. The progress of technology vis-a-vis the environmental costs as incurred by the industry are discussed in view of the energy demands of the industry.

The section defines the industry in two major compartments as organic and inorganic sectors and the technologies employed by them. The chemical industry section also profiles some of the leading players in the industry who have earned the reputation and pride for the US Chemical Industry globally and placing the United States at the top of the pecking order.

The second section covers the Petrochemical Industry in the United States and looks at the factors which were instrumental in the current state of the industry and the trends most expected to be prevalent in the near future. The section clearly demarcates the industry boundaries and explains the early as well as present activity quantum of this industry with the overall health analysis of the industry by applying a SWOT analysis.

The section further delves into the directional pointers of the industry which are steering its course conditions and the resultant diversion of investment planning by the industry majors in their existing projects. In order to better analyze the factors which have contributed to the industry the section provides a study of the overall macroeconomic activity prevalent in the US and the overall future outlook it provides for the industry. The major contributors of the industry are also analyzed in depth in this section which provides a complete insight on the factors plaguing the U.S. petrochemical industry and the road ahead for the same.