Based on the answers received in UIC’s annual survey conducted among chemical businesses, industrial investment in the chemical industry in 2009 is expected in sharp decline compared to 2008 of around 15 %. In absolute terms, the amount spent in 2009 was €2.5 billion, i.e. 3.8 % of the sector’s turnover.
Nevertheless, the chemical industry reduced its investment expenditure to a lesser degree than manufacturing industry, whose budget was an estimated 24% lower in 2009 than in 2008. As always, a certain degree of investment had to be made in the chemical sector to keep up with safety and maintenance regulations on industrial sites, unrelated to trends in demand and production capacity.
strong growth of the sector in 2007 made it possible for chemical businesses to catch up after several years of dwindling investment levels; a large part of the expenditure was both necessary and essential, as it was to do with maintaining chemical sites (major stoppages scheduled) and plant safety. Expenditure and industrial investment effort for the French chemical industry
Over the decade, spending on R&D have stopped around €1.4 bn while the ratio of R&D expenditure to turnover has oscillated between 1.8 % and 2 %. R&D budget and in-house R&D expenditure by the French chemical industry
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