The Spanish Federation of Chemical Companies recently announced that the sales of chemicals in Spain are expected to increase by 4.8% in 2024, reaching 86.5 billion euros (approximately 656.9 

billion yuan); Chemical production is expected to increase by 7.1%. In 2025, the sales of chemicals in Spain are expected to increase by 4.2%, surpassing the 90 billion euro mark for the first time; 

Chemical production will increase by 3.2%.

The improvement of economic environment benefits the chemical industry

Recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its forecast for Spain's GDP growth rate in 2024 from 2.4% in July to 2.9%, which is one percentage point higher than the forecast from a year 

ago; Spain's GDP is expected to grow by 2.1% in 2025. In the next two years, Spain's economic growth rate will be much higher than the two largest economies in the eurozone, Germany and France.

The healthy macroeconomic data of Spain has penetrated into the chemical industry, which, after years of sustained growth except for 2020, can still feel the pain of declining sales revenue and 

production in 2023. However, in 2024, strong domestic demand and export recovery (exports account for about two-thirds of Spain's chemical sales) helped the industry overcome difficulties.

In the unstable period after the epidemic, with the soaring global chemical prices, Spain's chemical sales increased significantly in 2021 and 2022; But as prices fell, chemical sales in Spain in 2023 

decreased by nearly 7% compared to 2022, and production decreased by 0.7% compared to 2022.

In 2024, there is a significant improvement in the situation. Juan Lavat, Director General of the Spanish Chemical Industry Federation, said, "Chemical prices are recovering from their low point in 

2023, and the average selling price should reach pre pandemic levels by the end of this year. Spain's basic chemical production is recovering, with an 8% increase as of July this year. Almost all chemical sub sectors are performing well, such as paints, personal care products, pharmaceuticals, etc

More government support is needed to achieve decarbonization goals

However, Theresa Lassero, the president of the Spanish Federation of Chemical Companies, said that these positive data masked the poor performance of key industries. Although the demand for

consumer chemicals, specialty chemicals, and healthcare products is growing healthily, basic chemicals are still struggling with high energy costs. Compared to their counterparts in Germany or 

France, the Spanish government's "almost no or very low" support for energy intensive industries exacerbates the situation.

The Spanish Federation of Chemical Companies has stated that it is expected that by 2024, Spain's support for energy intensive industries will cost only 300 million euros per year, far less than the 

billions of euros provided by neighboring countries. Laszlo said, "Compared to a few countries that have established similar systems, Spain's pollution compensation is almost non-existent or very 

low. The problem is that the production of basic chemicals is crucial, and we need more competitive energy prices to accelerate the decarbonization process

Laszlo stated that the Spanish chemical industry requires an annual investment of 3 billion euros to achieve decarbonization goals between 2025 and 2050. According to the forecast of the Spanish 

Federation of Chemical Companies, the Spanish government's annual support of 300 million euros for the chemical industry is far from enough. If we can receive an annual support of 3 billion euros,

of which 1.7 billion euros will be used for the construction and renovation of chemical plants, 850 million euros will be used for operational adjustments during technological transformation, and 

450 million euros can be used for maintenance and adaptation to new regulations. Only in this way can the Spanish chemical industry achieve its goal of reducing 12.4 million tons of carbon dioxide 

emissions annually by 2050.