Chemical industry worldwide 2006

In year 2006 the global chemical industry continued to face the challenge of increasing of energy price and raw material cost.The U.S.A.had gotten away from the influence of hurricane disasters,its chemical production increased by 2.5%,Canada increased by 1.3%;Europe,2.5%,Korea,3.5%,and only Japan decreased,by 0.8%.The prosperity of chemical industry brought a good future for chemical trade.The import and export went up greatly,which improved the trade surplus or reduced the trade deficit.The chemical companies kept the numbers of employees to control cost,yet the increasing profit still increased the wish of investing,and mergers and restructuring upgraded the power of competition in those companies.