The industryпїЅs revenue reached 98 billion euros (USD133 billion), VCI said at a press conference in Frankfurt, where the group is based. Chemical production including pharmaceuticals gained 3% while selling prices dropped 2%. VCI, which represents 1,650 German chemical companies including BASF and Lanxess, reiterated a full-year forecast for chemical sales to gain 1.5%, as the industry sells more for a lower average price. None of GermanyпїЅs chemical companies have reported first-half earnings yet, with BASF scheduled to release on July 24.

 

A free-trade agreement between the European Union and the US called the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, would boost would boost chemical production by 2 billion euros and create 2,000 jobs, said Karl-Ludwig Kley, president of the VCI.

 

Talks between the US and European Union to establish the worldпїЅs largest free-trade area began last July. Chancellor Angela Merkel is promoting TTIP to a skeptical German public as a way to boost growth and jobs in Europe.

 

EU officials have raised concern that the agreement will have to respect European privacy and data laws. Opponents campaigned against TTIP in European elections in May, focusing on US food standards they say are lower than in Europe.

 

Chemical production will probably increase 2% with selling prices dropping 0.5%, leading to the gain of 1.5% in sales to 191.5 billion euros, VCI reiterated. 

 

As MRC wrote before, German chemical companies are expecting further recovery in 2014 after production growth accelerated in the fourth quarter of last year. Chemical production will probably increase 2% with selling prices dropping 0.5%, leading to the gain of 1.5% in sales to 191.5 billion euros (USD265.6 billion), VCI reiterated. Fourth-quarter sales in GermanyпїЅs chemical industry rose 3% compared with a year earlier, while selling prices dropped 2.6%, VCI said. The industry employed 436,500 people at the end of the quarter, 0.5% more than a year earlier.