Chemical Capital Expenditures To Turn Up After Three-Year Decline

Abstract

Chemical companies expect that the U.S. economic recovery will finally mean improvements in sales and profit margins for them in 1994. As a result, many chemical producers plan to increase capital spending in 1994. Total capital spending for a group of 18 chemical companies surveyed by C&EN is projected to rise in 1994 an average of 6% above that of 1993 to $6 billion, although individual companies' plans vary from no increase to a 50% increase, and few are even close to the average. In the survey, the same companies said plant and equipment spending this year declined 6% from last year to a total of $5.7 billion. Cost control, though, is the industry byword—despite capital expenditures involving huge sums of money. Some companies will construct new plants, but the majority of chemical companies C&EN surveyed say they will continue to place major emphasis on process improvements and incremental expansions at existing plants in an ...