German Ethylene Vinyl Acetate Market Faces Challenges Amidst Poor Demand and High Energy Prices

Hamburg, Germany: Germany's Ethylene Vinyl Acetate market has been experiencing a downturn over the past few months primarily due to poor demand conditions. Poor demand has loomed big over the sector, particularly in Europe, where high energy prices have left firms battling to remain competitive, although chemical exports have continued to outperform imports substantially.

Although some specialty divisions of the chemicals industry saw more resilient demand than more commoditized materials, the greater margins of these goods may have offered some assistance. However, the level of capacity utilization in the chemical sector has decreased dramatically, including Ethylene Vinyl Acetate, and it is expected to be about 74% in Q2-2023. The capacity utilization level is nearing that of the first Covid shutdown in 2020. High energy prices and a lack of demand for chemicals, including Ethylene Vinyl Acetate, mostly cause low capacity utilization.

The prices of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate dropped to USD 2500 per tonne in August 2023, a drop of 3.5% from the USD 2590 per tonne in July 2023, mainly due to weaker demand and low-cost support from the upstream Vinyl Acetate Monomer market. Over the past few months, consumers in the Ethylene Vinyl Acetate market have observed reluctance in the Ethylene Vinyl Acetate market to be involved in newer business transactions amid deteriorating economic growth.

Due to high regional energy and feedstock prices of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate, the European chemical sector is losing competitiveness in global chemical markets. The German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) forecast on Thursday that its business condition will worsen in the second half of the year owing to deteriorating demand. According to economic analysts, Germany will have long-term energy cost disadvantages when compared to other industrial sites.

According to studies conducted by several market players, trust in the chemicals sector has decreased for the second month in a row. This is due to a significant fall in managers' output projections, which fell in August 2023 compared to July 2023. In terms of specific segments of the chemicals sector, basic chemicals continued to shrink by double digits, including the Ethylene Vinyl Acetate market.

According to the ChemAnalyst pricing intelligence, the prices of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate are anticipated to drop further in the upcoming weeks. High-interest rates, stricter credit conditions, and persistent inflationary pressures will continue to impact the manufacturing industries to which chemical manufacturers sell. Chemical output is predicted to fall dramatically in 2023 due to the overall negative business scenario in the industry.