Publications

The Belgian chemicals sector continues to grow, benefitting from structural resilience, but suffers from weakening competitiveness due to high labour costs.

The industry continues to grow in 2016, but the slowdown in key markets like China and Brazil could have a negative impact on some key subsectors.

The outlook for the Indian chemicals industry is positive, but there are liquidity and solvency issues with businesses in the trade and wholesale segment.

The US chemicals sector performs well, but the energy and fuel/oil subsector is in trouble, mainly affecting smaller and regional players in this segment.

The number of payment delays was high at the end of 2015, with financially weaker players leaving the market. Insolvencies are expected to level off.

Non-payments and business failures have increased, and are expected to rise further in the coming months. Many businesses suffer from decreasing margins.

The Industry Playing Fields provide a visual performance forecast for 14 different industries in countries paired together in the Euro 2016 tournament.

Lower GDP growth of 2.5% in 2016 and government budget hit by lower oil price. Public spending is curbed in order to trim the high budget deficit.

Weak economic situation and uncertain outlook as the security situation remains tense. Inflation is high and the business sentiment remains subdued.

A modest economic rebound expected in 2016, but fiscal consolidation remains difficult. Jordan remains heavily dependent on foreign donors support.

In 2016 economic growth will decrease to 3% due to less agriculture output and decreasing exports. In 2017 GDP is expected to rebound again, growing 4.5%.

The economy still has room to absorb the oil price slump, but a long-term period of low oil prices would hurt. Economic diversification is on the agenda.

A moderate economic rebound is expected in 2016 and 2017, given that the domestic security situation will not again hurt tourism and business sentiment.

As the oil price decrease has a negative impact on government revenues and lending conditions, many businesses face liquidity issues and payment delays.

The chemicals sectors in both Germany and France are scoring well and show robust performance. Still, some challenges lie ahead for both countries.

German non-food retailers struggle to cope with the fast growing market leaders, while the rebound for their Italian peers remains modest.

Payment delays remain a major issue in the British construction industry, while in Belgium the payment behaviour of the public sector remains bad.

Atradius identifies the most vulnerable countries and sectors in Europe to Brexit. The impact will be most acute in Ireland, Netherlands, and Belgium.

Despite a rebound in both the Italian and Spanish construction sectors payment duration is still long and insolvencies levels remain elevated.

In the UK chemicals sector there are high barriers to get into a successful team, while the industry shows a solid performance in Slovakia.